Wanna Bet?
by Allura01
Summary: Targeted amidst a torrid game of truth or dare, Relena finds herself having to pull the hottest guy. However, there’s a glitch: She can’t fall in love. What can she say to that? No problem?
1. High Stakes

**Wanna Bet?**

**Disclaimer: (Rolls eyes) Nope, i still don't own Gundam Wing... damn (sighs dreamily)**

**Chapter one: High Stakes**

"No, I want you to attain his _underwear_ – it's up to you how you get it – and show us all."

"Oh come on, that's an easy one… I'll have it for you by the end of tomorrow."

"Really now? We'll just see… Who's next… _Relena_ _Darlian_."

Relena snapped out of her reveries to stare at the dark haired girl in front of her, who was smirking, somewhat maliciously, "Hi, I'm not playing." She answered calmly, flicking the page of her 'Vogue' magazine over and turning her attention back to the article.

"Oh come on, Relena, you never play… just this once? Please?" Another girl asked. She jumped onto the bed beside Relena and snatched the magazine out of her lap, grinning mischievously. "Just… this… once?" She asked, slowly, begging her with silent blue eyes.

"Dorothy, go away, I told you that I do not like playing those silly childish games that you girls play," she shoved the platinum blonde-haired girl off the bed, and Dorothy quickly disappeared from her view. Sighing, she picked up her magazine again, and flicking through the pages, looked for the article she had been reading.

However, her attention was wrenched away from the glossy page as she felt someone tug at her nightgown.

"Hilde, what do you want?" Relena ignored the dark blue haired girl, focusing her attention on reading about the latest fashion.

"For you to play? Please? Come on, I just know that you'll love it. Plus, aren't you my best friend, and best friends do-" Hilde started, but she was interrupted as Relena snapped the magazine shut and glared at her with annoyed, cerulean-blue eyes.

"-anything for each other. Right." Relena finished the sentence for her and allowed herself to be pulled off her bed and into the small circle of girls that sat before her.

"Okay, Tiffany, what have you got in mind." Relena snapped, irritated.

"Chill, Miss Priss, it's _only_ a _game_. Okay; truth, dare or double dare?" The dark haired girl asked, flicking her long straightened tresses over her shoulder.

Relena glared at her, hating the game, "Double dare." She grinned slightly and grabbed Hilde's wrist. Hilde gasped in shock and glared back at her. "If I'm getting dragged into this, I'm bringing you down with me," she hissed in a hurried whisper to her best friend.

"Fantastic!" Tiffany squealed, grabbing Lani's arm tightly and pushing her to the side so that she could whisper frantically in her ear.

When both girls returned to their spaces, Tiffany was looking calm and composed, whereas Lani was trying –and failing - to conceal a sly grin and tittering girlishly every few seconds. Relena rolled her eyes at her dorm mates and turned to Tiffany.

"So? What have you planned for Hilde and I?" she asked, serenely, smiling slightly and brushing her long, honey-blonde hair out of her eyes.

"Well, this one's a good one, you're going to love it – or _maybe_ not." She sneered at her and Relena's calm smile faded slightly in her anxiety. "You, of course, are familiar with Heero Yuy and Duo Maxwell, right?"

"Of course, they're only like, the two sexiest, coolest most popular guys in school," Hilde piped up, smiling brightly. Tiffany nodded and her grin widened. "Win them. Relena, your target is Heero, and Hilde, yours is Duo."

Relena laughed, unsurely, "You have _got _to be kidding me."

"Nope," Lani smiled happily, "not at all… totally _serious_."

Her jaw dropped as she stared at the two evil girls in front of her, "And what's in this for me? This dare is ludicrous, there's no way that you can expect me to willingly do such a thing."

"How's _one thousand dollars_ sound?" Tiffany asked, her voice completely sincere. Hilde gasped, her hand clasped quickly over her mouth as her eyes bulged.

"Are you serious?" Hilde asked, "One thousand?"

"Yeah, well, no loss to me." Tiffany answered, "It's coming straight from Daddy's bank account," she waved a platinum credit card in front of them, her pale fingers lightly gracing the sides of the plastic.

"I don't know, that's a lot of money Tiff, I don't think your 'daddy' will be too happy about that, plus we're talking Heero and Duo here. It's insane to think that they'd _ever _even glance our way." Relena stated, defiantly.

"Don't worry about the money Relena; just think about what you could do with it." Tiffany answered as she stood up from her cushion and stretched her arms above her head.

"Lena…" Hilde tugged on her arm, forcing her to turn towards her, "please?"

Relena glared at her best friend, completely shocked at her words. Was Hilde serious? Did she really want to embarrass herself in front of the whole school?

"Come on, let's talk outside," Hilde commented, hauling Relena to her feet and out of the door.

"You can't be serious, Hilde, we can't do _that_!" Relena complained, running her hand through her hair.

"_Yes_, we can, Lena, that's a_ lot_ of money at stake," she turned her gaze towards the cold polished floor beneath them and scuffed her bare foot against it, meekly, "it's okay for you, you've got lots of money, your parents are rich. I have to work every weekend just to be able to scrape the money to be able to pay for my education. It would be a luxury, just to have that little bit extra in my pocket, and _not_ have to work so relentlessly." She lifted her gaze once again to meet Relena's.

Relena stared at her best friend whose words were tugging fiercely at her heartstrings.

Hilde, noticing the hesitation from her friend added, "I can't do it without you Relena, it's a double dare."

Relena sighed deeply before reluctantly answering, "Fine, I'll do it, but you owe me, Hilde."

Hilde bounced on her small toes excitedly, before jumping at Relena and squeezing her tightly.

"Okay, Hilde," Relena choked out, "I can't breathe." Hilde quickly let go of her and Relena shuddered, noticing the cold now that she had been released from Hilde's warm embrace, "Now let's get back in there, I'm freezing!"

Placing her hand on the cold, metal knob of their dormitory door, Hilde flashed Relena another cheerful smile before twisting it. As soon as the pair of them had stepped into the room and the heavy oaken door had slammed shut behind them, the room grew silent, all girls anxiously waiting for their response.

"We'll do it," Relena stated, the other girls cheered, joyously, "Wait, _if_," Tiffany's eyes opened wide as she stared at her, silently asking her to continue, "You raise the stakes to two thousand."

The other girls in the room gasped, but Tiffany remained silent, considering the negotiation.

"On one condition, you don't fall in love with your targets." She told her, smiling smugly.

Relena narrowed her eyes towards her friend, glaring slightly at her before nodding her head. From what she heard, Heero Yuy was an arrogant ass anyway.

"Fine, it's a deal," Tiffany replied slowly, stepping forward to shake hands with Relena. Relena accepted the Asian girl's tan hand and shook it lightly.

"No, it's a bet."

* * *

Okay, yes, this fic is A/U and the characters may sometimes act out of character, but if they are, it is merely for the sake of them being able to fit into correct personalities for me to be able to adapt them into this kind of a story. 

Anyways, please review and tell me what you think!

Love y'all

Allura


	2. Catching the First Stone

**Wanna Bet?**

**Chapter two: Catching the First Stone**

The sky outside was clouded with a bright, blinding grey as drops of pure white innocence fell softly from the sky, landing gently upon mounds of fluffy snow and obscuring windows with delicate shards of winter.

A bitter wind howled, tiresomely through the glass panes in the bay window whilst Relena watched the grounds outside, build with a November's frosty chill, from the warmth of her bedroom chamber.

"Oh, Hilde, what have you gotten me into?" Relena groaned, leaning her head warily against the cold glass, her forehead pressed against it and her breath fogging the windows with dense drops of vaporised water.

"The most exciting thing that's ever happened to you, Relena Darlian," Hilde countered from her bed, where she lay, catching up on some last minute studying for their Christmas exams, "What's the definition of 'electrolysis' again?"

Relena sighed heavily, causing even more water to be condensed against the cool glass, "The decomposition of a compound by passing through an electric current," she breathed out quickly, rhyming the line off from the top of her head.

"Oh," Hilde's face peered at the back of Relena's head from behind her Chemistry textbook, "I knew that."

Relena turned away from the calming atmosphere outside to stare at her dark haired best friend, who was characteristically biting her nails as dark eyebrows furrowed down deeply, in a state of confusion.

"And the anode is the negative electrode, right?" Her eyes averted from the tiny scripts of the book to meet amused cerulean blue orbs.

"No, that would be the _cathode_. The anode is the positive electrode." Relena astutely corrected, shaking her head of honey blonde hair as a girlish laugh escaped her small lips.

Hilde simultaneously shook her head as a pure look of fury adorned her pretty face, "Agh!" She yelled, throwing the book to the floor, where it collided with the dusty wood to form a heavy slam, "How the hell can you learn that rubbish?"

"It's not _that_ complicated once you learn the basic facts, in fact, I often find electrolysis experiments quite exciting," Relena stated, her light eyes scanning, in boredom, around the room.

Hilde threw her a shrewd look of contempt, tossing her dark bangs carelessly out of her eyes, "You're strange, did you know that?"

Relena rolled her eyes towards the ceiling, "Say what you wish, Hilde. It's your own grades that will be suffering in January when the post-Christmas results are sent out."

"Hmm, well okay, I think the only practical I will be able to recall during the exams will be the 'flamethrower technique', you know the one where we feed the flame of the Bunsen burner oxygen, to make it increase." Hilde responded, her eyes lighting with raw excitement as she recalled the experiment in her head.

"Would that be because you were able to set Lani's hair on fire?" Relena giggled.

"Well, yes, but it taught her that she shouldn't wear so much hair lacquer when attending chemistry classes," Hilde remarked, a proud grin bracing her face.

"Talking about classes, what time is it, Hilde?" Relena asked enquiringly, standing from the bay window's sill and yawning lightly, her arms twisted freely into the air as she stretched.

"Umm," Hilde started, looking hesitantly down to her watch and then biting her lip, "eight, fifty-five…"

"What?" Relena cried, jumping out of her lazy stupor and grabbing her bag and books from her bed, "We've got class in five minutes; we're going to be late."

Hilde sighed, frowning at her friend's panic-stricken face, and stood slowly from her position, lifting her things carefully before sauntering to the door, which Relena was holding open, bouncing from foot-to-foot, impatiently waiting for her.

"Come on, get a move on slow poke, won't Mister Hudson make you do laps or something, if you're late for Phys Ed?" The blonde asked, frenetically.

"Nope," Hilde beamed as she turned into the corridor, "he loves me, I'm one of his best students," she then flexed her arms in a 'macho' way, as if the emphasize her point.

"Whatever, I've got to get to my Government and Politics class, see ya at lunch!" Relena dashed off round the corners, before being halted by a prefect and scolded for running in the hallways.

Hilde snickered at her friend's antics before heading out of the main doors, to the gymnasium, which was situated on the far grounds of the school. "Idiotic girl," she muttered jokingly under her breath.

"Now that's not very nice, is it?" A taunting voice called from behind her, its tone deep and humorous with a fair amount of amusement.

Hilde froze in her steps, and spun around on her heel, forgetting to be cautious of the icy pavements. Immediately she regretted her carelessness as her Mary-sues slipped on the frozen grounds beneath her, causing her to lose her balance with the earth and topple ungracefully to the ground.

That would have happened, however, if a pair of strong hands had not quickly made their way around her small waist, allowing her body to fall into the arms of the stranger as her face rapidly blossomed a deep red as the blood heatedly rushed to her face in embarrassment.

"Whoa there, I wasn't quite aware of the meaning of '_falling_ in love at first sight,' until just now." The voice told her, chuckling comically at his own joke.

Hilde grimaced at the lame choice of words, and opening her eyes to stare at the stranger, she quickly snapped them shut again as she saw who it was that was holding her. Her heart was racing wildly and jumping to her throat and she was conscious of the fact that she undoubtedly looked like a tomato.

She stood up quickly, trying to regain her composure and her pride as she faced her fellow student, smiling weakly.

"Duo Maxwell… wishful thinking, much?" She asked, staring into the roguishly wild, cobalt blue eyes that stared deeply into hers, almost seeming as though they too, were laughing at her actions.

"You think so?" He asked playfully, grinning mischievously and bending to his knees to pick up the many scattered books of Hilde Schbeiker, "Damn, I must be losing my touch, eh?"

Hilde giggled, mindlessly as the braided American rose to his feet, handing her a pile of textbooks, but as she went to reach for them, Duo frowned and pulled the books out of her reach, "Umm… Maxwell, could I have my books back please?" she asked, unsurely.

"No," Duo stated plainly, his infamous grin still apparent on his handsome face, "I will carry them for you, m'lady, and you are, after all, in my class, aren't you?"

Hilde blushed even more so, feeling her heart increase in its frantic pace, 'What's wrong with me?' she asked, silently as they both turned, walking over the freezing grounds and towards the sports hall, with Duo keeping an extra close eye on Hilde, due to her recent clumsiness.

The frozen grass and soils crunched noisily under their heavy treads as they walked in a shivering state, through the harsh wintry winds, the cold, bitter hands of frost clawing callously at their bare, uncovered skin, and by the time they had reached the large hall, they had been adorned with red noses and cheeks, blemished by the chill.

"Well," Duo said, confidently, offering Hilde her books, which she graciously accepted, "See ya later, mate…" and he disappeared quickly into the boys changing rooms.

Hilde stood for a moment, looking pensively at the closed door, 'Mate? Well… I guess it's a start,' she thought, before being suddenly startled by the loud, boyish cheers echoing from the changing room as Duo Maxwell, infamous sports player, and overall 'player' arrived leisurely into their sights.

Sighing deeply, Hilde turned away and strolled into her own changing rooms, trying to shake the famous, stunning Maxwell from her mind.

-x- -x- -x-

"You didn't!"

The mindless girlish rambles drawled on as Relena continued to block them out of her mind, ignoring their useless squeals and mindless giggles.

"Ah! Oh my God, YOU DID!" Tiffany screamed, this time however, Relena wasn't able to obstruct the high-pitched cry from echoing through her eardrums and ringing in her mind.

"Tiff," Relena moaned, morosely, "Keep it down, would you? I'm trying to study here!"

"Relena look," Tiffany exclaimed, bouncing up and down with a piece of clothing in her delicate hands, "she got them, Cara snatched Reuben's underwear, can you believe it?"

"Well, I don't really have much choice, do I? I mean, the proof is right here in front of me, now would you please remove those disgusting things from my face?" Relena asked, wrinkling her nose in repulsion.

"You're such a bore," Tiffany retorted, jutting her chin out in self-arrogance, "you need to lighten up, hopefully this bet we have going will be able to do just that. Otherwise, God help us all."

Relena rolled her eyes in irritation, and biting back a bitchy remark, she focused on the page in front of her, studying Pythagoras' theorem.

"You'll never guess who I crashed into today," Hilde whispered in her ear, after jumping on the bed to accompany her, "literally crashed."

"Oh, I don't know," Relena said, already bored, "Dagger?"

Hilde frowned, "No, not quite, but I haven't seen him around in ages… Duo… Duo Maxwell."

Relena, now interested, dog-eared her book to mark her page and studied her best friend warily. "Really?"

"Really, really; he even carried my books for me."

"Honestly?" Relena protested, disbelievingly.

"Honestly, "Hilde cried, "Score one for the… uh… the Relde's!"

"Huh?" Relena's eyebrows furrowed in confusion, "The what's?

"Well… mix both Relena and Hilde together, and you get… Relde! See?"

"And I'm the weird one?" Relena asked, pointedly.

"Don't burst my bubble!" Hilde grumbled; sulking slightly, before a pair of grey boxers landed on her head.

"Whoops sorry!" Lani cried, trying to muffle her giggles.

Hilde's face contorted into one of amusement and disgust as she shook her head violently to rid herself of the briefs, yelling in indignation, "Eww, that's gross!"

Relena's body shook intensely as she tried to control her laughing fit, whilst staring at her best friend who was currently staring at the grey cloth, her lip curled in revulsion.

"That is sick!"

* * *

Okay. So this chapter isn't quite as good as i had imagined it to be, but the next one will be up soon, and it shall be good. Or i hope it will, if not, well then, i will resign myself to believing the i currently suck at writing. Which isn't that hard to believe, but I am currently a tormented victim of the cruel 'writer's block'... poor BLaH... 

Review please? They do help me to write faster, they give INSPIRATION! That's why this one was up so fast! hehe

Love y'all

Allura


	3. A First Encounter

**Wanna Bet?**

**Chapter three: A First Encounter with her Partner in Crime**

Relena strolled along the long empty corridors, scanning imperiously for signs of illegitimate life. As head girl, she had a duty to enforce strict rules upon her fellow students, making sure that all were in dorm rooms by the specified 'ten-thirty' routine, lights out.

She shuddered as the howling, bitter wind escaped in from an open window and captured her thin frame with its vindictive, icy fingers.

Her Mary-sues clicked relentlessly against the polished stone floors as she sighed inwardly, letting her mind briefly wander to her first few days back at school, from the summer holidays. She had been so excited to receive the role of Head girl, but sadly, it had not been living up to her expectations. The only thing that was different from last year was that she was given more responsibilities and a couple of delinquent first years to tutor once in a while.

Who was Head boy this year? She hadn't yet received the news of who was to work alongside her this year, as her fellow head student. A buzz of excitement made its way, like electrostatic charges, through her body and she smiled in anticipation. Maybe if her colleague was a decent guy, which undoubtedly he was, being the Head boy and all; she could have an interesting few terms in Harrison College.

She was suddenly, literally knocked out of her reveries as she sharply rounded a corner, too lost in her thoughts to pay attention, and was abruptly lying on the cold, harsh ground, her head spinning from hitting the tough stone and the collision with the person who was now hovering around, staring down at her with blaming eyes.

"Hn, for a Head girl… you don't seem to set on keeping to the rules. I heard that when rounding corners, you were supposed to turn with a slow steady speed, oh and pay attention to where you are going." The cold and distant, deep voice told her, and startled by his words, Relena cast curious cerulean blue eyes to stare at the irritated boy hanging above her.

"What would you know about rules? Anyway, you too, should have been watching where you were going. What are you doing up so late at night anyway?" Relena protested, eyeing the tall boy in front of her with an untrusting suspicion.

Glancing quickly down to the black, leather strapped watch on his wrist, he cast her a weary look, "It's eleven o'clock. Hardly late, and I could ask you the same question," He looked irritated, brushing his arm out towards her and holding his palm out in a kind gesture; but the callous look on his face was telling her that he wasn't doing it out of politeness. "However, I happen to know what you're doing out here, seeing as I was sent out to find and assist you with your duties."

"What? Why were _you_ sent out?" Relena answered, gratefully accepting his hand and watching him glare at her through piercing blue eyes as he helped her to her feet, making sure to let go quickly once she was standing.

Heero Yuy glowered at her, before rolling his eyes and pointing brashly to the shiny pin on his black woollen blazer.

"God, no…" Relena unknowingly whispered as she clasped a hand to her mouth and stared at the italic lettering on the shiny sliver badge… "You're head boy?"

"Don't get too ahead of yourself. I don't want to be working with you either, but unfortunately, there's nothing either of us can do, so… shall we?" His eyes narrowed viciously as he signalled to the hallway.

Silently, Relena nodded her head, and continued with her daily task of venturing down the darkened corridors. This time not so lonely, as a foreboding tension hung thickly in the air and an equally silent boy strode along next to her; cautious to avoid speaking and staring coolly down the halls.

She watched him from her peripheral vision; his dark unruly hair hanging casually before his piercing prussian blue eyes, which although they seemed relaxed, were in fact adamantly scanning along the corridors, flickering at every slight movement ahead. She studied how his posture was stiff and formal, his body never once released from its tense state, as if wary of finding itself in a sudden dangerous situation.

He suddenly folded muscular arms across a broad muscular chest and turned to stare at her with eyes as icy as the weather outside.

"Dr. Steiner wants us both in his office before registration tomorrow morning. Urgent matters." His voice was hushed yet monotonous, completely devoid of any emotion, and it baffled Relena to how anybody could be so… cold and impassive.

"Urgent matters?" she glanced down at a silver wristwatch, which was dangling, delicately from her wrist, notifying her that her session of posting the corridors was over.

"Yes. Urgent matters." He repeated, his large strides coming to a stop. Relena fell into place beside him.

"Umm… Okay, well, I'll see you tomorrow then." She replied, casually, ignoring his sharp glares and swiftly turning on her heel, towards her dormitory.

"Goodnight Darlian," he called after her, rather gently, however the greeting met her ears and she smiled, absently.

"Goodnight, Yuy." She countered, mocking his tone.

-x- -x- -x-

"You!" Relena yelled as she barged into the room, like a hurricane, the wind around her carrying her long hair across her shoulders.

Tiffany squealed and jumped back, away from the infuriated girl, dropping her brush in the process.

"You knew about him!" Relena cried, throwing herself onto her bed and burying her face in her downy pillow.

"Huh?" Hilde asked, genuinely confused, coming to rest on Relena's bed. Relena raised her head from the pillow as she felt the bed sink down to one side.

"You knew that he was head boy! Didn't you?" She asked Tiffany, somewhat calmer now, although her eyes were still burning with an angry fire.

"Umm… yeah! But hey! I did you a favour; count yourself lucky." Tiffany replied prudently, draping her silken sheets across her slim figure as she shrunk down into her bed.

"A favour?" Relena protested.

"Yes, otherwise you wouldn't have talked to him, would you?"

Relena scoffed, her usually pale cheeks burning red, "I wouldn't call what we did tonight talking."

Hilde's eyebrows rose quickly to be covered be dark ebony bangs.

"Not_ that _way, don't be crude," Relena grabbed her pillow and chucked it at her best friend, "he _hates _me."

Tiffany smiled secretively, "Well, looks like someone's losing their bets; Relena's target hates her, and well Hilde's has just recently – today in fact – officially become unavailable."

"What?" Hilde cried in indignation, "Unavailable? What – who?"

"Aimee Wright; he asked her out today, after his track meeting, I heard, and of course Aimee couldn't refuse. I mean, Duo Maxwell… who _would_ refuse?" Tiffany answered astutely.

"Aimee _Wright?_ That pompous bitch in my Economics class?" Relena asked, her mouth agape in shock.

"Yes, she's in our economics class. She's in my house too, Hunter house." Tiffany added, gazing smugly at her dorm mates.

"But… but she's… stunning." Hilde muttered, looking dismayed at her newfound knowledge.

"You set this whole thing up, Tiffany! That was totally unfair." Relena exclaimed, shaking her head in disapproval, "You made sure that I had a guy who hated me, and Hilde a guy who's currently dating a supermodel-like-student."

-x- -x- -x-

"What the hell? I thought this was bad to start with, never mind throwing in all these damned twists!" Relena stormed into the bathroom, grabbing Hilde's shirtsleeve and tugging her in behind her. As soon as the pair stepped onto the cold floor of the room, they released heavy shudders as their bodies opposed to the cold air that was currently trying to tinge their skin with icy blue paint.

"Okay, Lena, calm with the profanities. That's so not like you, and its okay, I can do without the money," Hilde remarked whilst a sad look of dismay draped across her pretty face, and curtained her eyes with a dark and deep sorrow. She slumped heavily against the toilet's lidded seat and sank her head into her hands.

"Oh no, Hilde, you are not giving up already, are you?" Relena inquired, protesting to her best friend's gloomy manner, "You've never been one to give up so easily!"

Hilde sighed deeply, still not looking up, "What's the point Relena, I mean… Aimee Wright?" she pried her eyes from the cold tiled floor of the bathroom to stare distantly at her friend, the excited glimmer usually apparent in her sapphire blue eyes distinctly lost. "You said so yourself, she's a super-model-like-student, my modest looks couldn't even try to compare to hers."

Relena stared at her, feeling her own hope turning to ashes in her chest, however she couldn't give up, not yet. "Don't be stupid. Tiffany set this up, we have to get back at her and Hilde, you're gorgeous, I promise you…"

"Am not," Hilde objected, as she threw her friend an intense look, which screamed of her disbelief, "and what do you propose we do to get back at her? There's nothing we can do… I still can't believe this… Aimee… and to think I'd actually had my hopes set on him."

"Don't be ridiculous, we aren't supposed to fall in love Hilde, but I've got an idea, trust me, all we have to do is win this bet." Relena wrapped her arms around her scantily clad body, rubbing the silken nightdress that was trying, and failing to protect her from the cold.

Hilde shook her head in agitation and fingered the hems of her scabby pyjama top, "I can't do it. Maybe you could woo your boy, but Duo, he's such a player, and I noticed that he only goes for the best."

"What about Heero? You think he's that simple? No way, he's much fussier than Duo, and I heard he's got his sights set on Sylvia Noventa, yes the goddess of good looks and the richest most snobbish girl in this school." Relena complained, with a cry of indignation as she brushed her bangs fervently out of her adamant eyes.

"Fine, we may as well give it a shot… but Sylvia Noventa. I'm sorry Relena, you're way prettier than she is, honestly, but I wish you good luck anyway." Hilde said, rising from the toilet seat.

"You too," Relena muttered as they both left their conversation and the icy bathroom behind.

-x- -x- -x-

Relena smiled, planning her revenge on her so-called friend, Tiffany, as she glanced down for the millionth time that morning to check the silver watch dangling on her slim, delicate wrist and noted the time.

"Half eight," she muttered to herself as she cast a weary look at the heavy mahogany door in front of her, finely decorated with the gold painted plate, which adorned the italic lettering, 'Principal'. "Aww stuff it, I'm going in, I don't care if I'm too early."

As she placed her hand upon the silver knob, however, she could feel it twisting beneath her hand, and it was not due to her influence. She gasped as she was suddenly face to face with her Principal, 'Dr. Steiner'.

"Miss Darlian, so nice of you to eventually join us," he half joked in his cheery manner, "I was hoping that when I stated you be here by twenty past, that you would be here by then. We'll have to rush this meeting now." He chuckled, but Relena could tell that he was telling her the truth, and that she had in fact, shortened their limited time for this meeting.

Relena stepped into the warm office, feeling a rush of blood flood embarrassingly to her face. "I'm terribly sorry," she stated as she shot a fiery pointed glance towards Heero, who was comfortably slumped in one of the black, plush chairs opposite the principal's desk, with an arm casually resting upon the armrest and a chilling smirk adorning his handsomely dark and perfectly chiselled face.

Relena sighed quietly, irritated by his tremendous good looks, and placed herself tensely into the chair beside him; her posture the exact opposite of Heero's as her hands rested neatly in her lap and her back was postured straight as she sat forward, wiling to hold onto every single word that left Dr. Steiner's mouth.

Dr. Steiner set himself calmly into his desk chair and brushed his snow-white, wispy hair out of his bright blue and cheery eyes, which glistened towards them happily. Relena had always found herself strangely appealed by her Principal's happiness and had always enjoyed having their brief discussions about the school year and the changes that they could make.

After straightening his navy and white chequered tie, he coughed lightly and shone his radian blue eyes onto the head girl and boy.

"Now, Relena, Heero, I'm sure that the pair of you are unaware of why this meeting has been called, but rest assured, the task will not be troublesome. In fact, I'm fairly sure that the two of you will enjoy this." He beamed at them, his bright eyes gleaming whilst he spoke, "I'm not sure if you are aware of this, but last semester, the school had two rooms fitted merely for the head girl and boy's own personal use-"

Relena released an astonished gasp as she stared at her headmaster in disbelief. 'My own room? This is going to be great, wait till Hilde hears about this.'

"These rooms are not situated too far from your original ones, and they are ingeniously fitted with your own private bathrooms - one for each of you of course – and of course, a shared common room, once again, only for the use of the two of you." He smiled, almost secretively before adding, "You may be able to get good use of that."

Relena's eyes widening shockingly and she cast a quick and furtive, sidelong glance towards Heero to see that he had a sheer look of disgust brazened across his face. 'Well, at least he has one emotion,' she thought, before grimacing, 'surely he can't mean what I think he does…'

"The pair of you are to be moved into your rooms be the end of classes today," The headmaster continued swiftly, as if what he had said, had insinuated nothing, "Don't worry," he added as Relena opened her mouth to object to his last statement. "I have excused you from your classes for today as I am positive in knowing that you will easily catch up… the both of you."

Heero shifted, somewhat now uncomfortably in the leather seat, and Relena frowned as the material squeaked beneath him.

"Okay, well now that that is sorted, you may leave. I have a lot of things to do." To emphasize his last point, his phone immediately started ringing and he rapidly picked up the receiver, holding it to his ear.

Relena stepped out of the room and felt her body immediately missing the warm conditions of the office, as her body prickled from the cold, her hairs standing quickly on edge.

Heero lingered behind her a few steps, and after a few corridors of walking, he met with a cheerful, platinum-blonde haired boy who clapped him fondly across the back, after throwing her a pleasant smile.

The sudden full impact of Dr.Steiner's words hit her at full force as she tossed her head over her shoulder to glance back at Heero, who was staring at her with a strangely confused and lost look amidst his stunning piercing blue eyes. However, once he met her gaze, they glazed over with a threatening darkness and he narrowed his eyes as he rested coolly against the corridor wall, nodding infrequently to his friend's words.

She was going to be spending the next seven months with that cold, insensitive, callous monster, and no matter how attractive he was, if he annoyed her with his silent and cocky attitude, she was going to strangle him… bet or not.

* * *

**Reviews? Perdy Please?**

Thank you for all the smashingly great reviews that I have received so far. I hope that you guys are enjoying this, because I certainly am… Oooohhh Heero's a SEXY beast!

Love y'all

Allura


	4. Extra Curricular Activities

**Wanna Bet?**

**Chapter four: Extra Curricular Activities **

Dorothy burst into her dorm room, just before lunch, her face lit with a vivacious smile and bouncing up and down on her toes with excitement. She had spent nearly three hours, searching in between classes for her raven-haired friend, who had happened to avoid half of the school for the entire morning.

Her objective was lying in the common room, dangling upside down from a chair, nearby the fireplace, and reading a novel – most likely a saucy romance novel. Hilde had forever been trying to hide her fondness for the books from the other oblivious girls, but Dorothy had caught her a few times too many, stuffing books behind the chair cushions in a useless attempt to hide her embarrassment.

The girl was deeply engrossed in the book, her dark eyes scanning surreptitiously over the small printed lines and her legs hanging, peculiarly, over the back of the chair as her head rested on the seat.

Clandestinely, she crept over to her friend and snapped the book shut on her face, causing the dark haired girl to scream and fall, unceremoniously, off the chair and land, limbs sprawled, onto the ground below her.

"Bloody hell, Cat, what did you do that for? Did I not tell you that you weren't to take your damned, time of the month mood swings out on me?" Hilde scoffed, dusting imaginary balls of lint off her black, pleated shirt and dark, woollen sweater.

"Where have you been?" Dorothy asked, ignoring her last statement, "I've been looking for you all morning."

"Why, I didn't know you cared…" she commented, sarcastically, "I've been here, actually," Hilde grabbed her book from the ground and stuffed it into her book bag, a red glow rising to her cheeks, "I have free periods till noon, have you seen Lena?"

"No," Dorothy answered shortly, rolling her eyes in frustration, "listen, I have done you _the_ biggest favour of your life, and you are going to_ love_ me for it." She beamed down at the royal blue eyes of her friend, and smiled.

Hilde ruffled her hair slightly, and ran her fingers through it. She had decided to outgrow the tomboyish style that she had acquired when she was fifteen and allowed Relena to talk her into growing it into a shoulder length choppy style. It surprising suited her, and she had adapted to the fact that she no longer needed to just wake up, wash and go, as she usually would. Now, she had to wake up half an hour earlier, just to get it to sit half decently.

"Why am I suddenly feeling very nervous? What have you done?" Hilde inquired, her eyebrows rising slightly as she stared at her friend.

"I signed you up for the tennis team," Dorothy laughed, airily, before sinking into another of the common rooms chairs.

Hilde groaned, and sunk further into her seat, plastering her hands to her face, "What did you do _that_ for?"

"Well, you see, that's the surprise, you'll find out after school this evening. It was so easy to get you a trial though, Coach must really like you, what did you do? Seduce him after track meeting? Couple of lap dances?"

"Eww," Hilde grimaced at the unwanted visions propelled into her mind, "That's gross Dorothy!"

"I was kidding," she replied, laughing, "you're starting to spend too much time with Relena, where's your perky sense of humour gone to?"

"It left when you walked into the room," Hilde stared at the platinum-blonde girl before scowling, "I'm going to _kill _you… why _tennis_?"

"I told you, it's a surprise, but you'll love it, or you may hate it, I'm not too sure."

Hilde groaned again, and threw her head back staring blandly at the ceiling, "Has anybody told you are aggravatingly evil you are?"

"Yes, many times, now get over it, and take these," Dorothy propped a bag onto Hilde's seat and after smiling once more, she added, "Yes, the skirt is_ slightly_ short, however, that's the point of this little _exercise_. I have to go now, lunch calls, oh and _don't _you _dare_ skip out on this, I've already told coach that you're eager to start. Ciao!"

Hilde watched the blonde's retreating back and felt contempt build up inside of her as she wondered why either she or Relena put up with the rich, frustrating girl. She could be tolerable at times, but most of the time, she was just so damned irritating. Like now, the tennis team… really, what did she have up her thin little sleeve?

As the door slammed shut, indicating to her, that Dorothy had eventually departed the common room, Hilde cast a surreptitious glance around the room, and upon realising there were only a few first years, studying contently around their tables, she opened the bag.

Her hand came to terms with a cotton piece of material and she slowly and cautiously pulled it out.

"Oh my…" she gasped; the pleated, white tennis skirt was much too short for her liking, in fact, she reckoned that the school would have something to say about it being short. It was illegally short! Yeah… _that_ short.

"Whoa, Schbeiker, want a skirt with that belt?" Hilde's head jolted up in sudden embarrassment, but as she stared at the commentator of her new skirt, she smiled and relief flooded her tensed body.

"Lena, where have you been?" Hilde dropped the skirt back into the bag, and jumped up from her seat to turn to her friend, who was carrying a large brown, cardboard box, "What's up with the box"

"Oh, yeah, I'm moving dorms-" Relena replied distractedly as she walked towards the bag that Hilde was tying to hide behind her body, "Dr. Steiner insists, we get our own personal bathrooms and everything…"

"Oh yeah? That's cool- hold on, who's 'we'?" Hilde asked as she sidestepped in front of Relena and swatted her hand, anxiously, away from the bag.

"Give over, Hil, let me see that." Relena complained, "Heero and I. Lucky me, huh?"

"I'll say. I sure wouldn't mind having to share an area with him. Do you have a shared common room?" Hilde replied as she shoved Relena away and diving for the bag, hugged it to her form and made a run for her room, Relena on her tail with her box dangling from her hand.

"Yes, unfortunately," Relena grimaced again, as she remembered her headmaster's earlier words. Just what had he been insinuating, when he said that?

"No, Relena, don't-" Hilde cried as the bag was carelessly ripped from her grip and Relena jumped on her bed, pouring the contents out onto it.

"Thinking of joining the tennis team, are we?" Relena asked with a devious grin, as she held the white polo shirt to her chest, "I have to say, the uniform _is_ cute. Maybe I should think about joining the team, just so that I can get to wear this cute little outfit."

"Relena!" Hilde moaned, "Have you seen the length of the skirt?"

"Yes, I have, I was the one who commented on it out there, remember? It's okay, it'll look good on you, you have nice legs."

Hilde frowned and twisted her mouth into a scowl. "There's no way I'm wearing that!"

"Well then, why did you pick it? And anyway, you'll be fine; your legs are quite short so it won't look too… sluttish." Relena commented, still staring at the mini-skirt.

"I didn't pick it. Dorothy did, and she signed me up for the team too, I don't know what she's getting at." Hilde sighed and threw the articles of clothing back into the bag, where they would stay until later. "I've come to the conclusion that she's either on drugs or she's got something mischievous planned."

"Although it's a hard decision," Relena laughed, as she moved off the bed and towards her closet were she hastily picked up her clothes and books and placed them neatly into her box, "I'd reckon it's the latter. Dorothy doesn't need marijuana to act like an idiot."

Hilde laughed in agreement and reluctantly pulled herself off her bed to help Relena pack, "I can't believe that you're leaving me with all of these twits!"

"You'll survive, hopefully- Hilde!" she snapped aggravated, "Stop, you're packing it all wrong! Just go back over to your bed. I'll do it myself."

"Fine," Hilde threw her arms up in resignation and sighed, settling herself onto her bed, "Maybe that saying about girls living in close quarters, having their periods at the same time, is true," she muttered.

-x- -x- -x-

Hilde had left Relena to finish her packing and headed down to endure her agonisingly long and tedious classes, alone.

She sat in class – maths class to be specific – with her head propped up by her hands, and stared at the blackboard, trying her best not to let her heavy eyelids droop into a deep slumber. Just as she had finally allowed her eyes to close for a few seconds, the bell rang; its shrill sound echoing through the small classroom and causing her to snap awake, her body jolting straight and her arms flailing beneath her sending her books scattering to the floor.

Her teacher sent her a warning look before announcing to the class that they could leave.

"Don't forget," an elbow nudged her in the ribs and she turned to glare at Dorothy with callous eyes, "tennis practice, in ten minutes."

Before she had a chance to snap back at her, Dorothy was dancing cheerfully out of the classroom and sending her a discreet wink before disappearing completely.

Hilde scowled and leant down to pick up her books, gathering them in her hands and rushing out of the classroom to avoid the glares of her teacher.

She stood in the changing rooms of the sports hall, staring at her reflection in the bathroom mirror, and grimacing vaguely.

Who wore such a short skirt in winter anyway? Her, unfortunately… thanks to Dorothy-freaking-Catalonia.

"Oh, god, how did I let her talk me into this?" she murmured as she walked out, tugging at her skirt and stopping only to stare, expectantly at Mr Phillips, the school's team coach, who after a few minutes, graced her present with a slight smile.

"Hey Schbeiker, what can I do for you?" He asked, somewhat distractedly as he raised his eyes from his paperwork.

"I'm just trying out for the tennis teams-" she started, but the coach cut her off, smiling brightly.

"Oh, yeah, right. That girl… earlier, she signed you up, said you didn't have time to do it yourself. Okay missy, I see that you're changed, if you could just go find the tennis captain. He's out on the courts already; great guy he is, don't know what we'd do without him. He's your games captain too you know…"

"Yeah, okay coach," Hilde replied, and with a sigh, she made her way onto the tennis court, where the everlasting sound of bouncing tennis balls raddled her brain and frazzled her nerves. It had been ages since she had last played tennis, choosing to focus on subjects in Phys Ed that were more energetic.

She looked across the courts, staring at the bodies fully clad in white and bouncing fervently up and down along with the tennis balls. She spotted a girl she knew from one of her classes and warily walked towards her, cautious of the ever bouncing, wild balls being aimed in every direction.

"Hey, Kate, Do you know who the tennis captain is?" she asked.

Kate, distracted by her words, whacked the ball flying towards her partner, slightly askew, sending it crashing into some guy's… well important member of their anatomy.

"Damn it, Carter, watch where you aim those bloody things!" he yelled back at her, furiously.

"Walk it off, Rogers!" Kate replied, smirking slightly as the boy collapsed to the ground.

"Ouch…" Hilde grimaced.

"He'll survive, he's a big boy… or maybe not so much now." She giggled, and Hilde ignored the implication, "he's over there," she gestured her thumb in the other direction and Hilde nodded turning around to where she had directed her.

Hilde blushed deeply as she neared the captain and halted in her steps, wanting to run back into the changing rooms and hide until the training session was over.

'I'm going to murder, Dorothy…'

The tennis captain noticed her standing there, waved to his partner, signalling that he would be back, and jogged towards her.

'It's not too late to run… _move_, you damned legs,' but they wouldn't, it was as if they were glued to the ground beneath her feet.

Hilde swallowed_, hard_. Oh _boy_, did he look good. In fact, good couldn't even compare to how hot Duo Maxwell was looking at the minute. The white uniform, although only a simple training one, only brought out the mocha darkness of his skin, and his eyes looked bluer than ever. Like lasers, piercing into her soul.

She felt herself get very hot at his hastily nearing proximity.

He looked tall, lean, and destructive, as he smiled at her. His daring blues were swirling with casual seduction and his hair was shining vividly in the sunlight. Well, as much sunlight as you'd get at four in the afternoon in November.

"Schbeiker, why I never thought I'd see _you_ here." He said casually, his deep, silky voice stirring the blood in her veins and causing a rising blush to form on her cheeks.

"You're the tennis captain?" she asked, rather nervously. He laughed. It was a nice laugh, like, if he were in a crowded room, and he laughed, or smiled, the whole room would turn their attention to him. It was deep and suave, but in a provoking, masculine sort of way.

Hilde didn't know whether she wanted to run for her life, or jump him there and then and kiss him till the end of the world.

"That's me, alright," He flashed her his pearly whites and displayed his trademark grin, the one that had most of the female population of the school swooning and in a puddle of goo at his feet. No wonder he was able to pull of the whole bad boy, player type attitude; right now, she would fall for it.

"Umm, yeah," Hilde started, feeling extremely lame, both for being there in the first place, and for making a fool of herself in front of _him_. 'He has a girlfriend, Hilde, get a grip!' she cautioned herself.

"I'm really not that good at Tennis, it isn't my thing, you know what I mean? I don't know why I'm here, in fact…" she drawled off, her eyes still trapped in his mesmerising gaze, and gestured back to the main school, "I'm going to go."

"No," Duo started, his hand immediately reaching to scratch the back of his neck, as if he was in a state of confusion, "stay, at least show me something… you know, let me see your potential?" he handed her his racket and a green ball.

"Umm… I'm not too sure," Hilde started, but he winked at her and as her heart swooned, she took the objects off him and let him guide her over to a free court.

She stood on the opposite end of the court, facing him, and prying her eyes away from his handsome face; she aimed and swung the racket, with her heart still hammering relentlessly against her ribcage.

The ball gracefully glided to his end of the court, bounced once and then smacked off his racket, "Great," he called, quickly, "continue the rally!"

She hit it back once again, this time a little harder than necessary, and maybe the aiming was a little higher too.

The ball zoomed straight over the net, and shot straight towards Duo, smashing – in a way that seemed extremely painful – his perfect face.

Hilde froze. "Shit," she muttered under her breath as he lost his balance and collided with the ground.

She dashed over to his side, and with her thumb and forefinger, she twisted his face carefully and gently towards her.

"Are you okay?" she asked, frenetically, her heart racing like mad in her chest, 'Oh my god, I just hit the tennis captain on the head… there's no way I'm getting on the team now- actually, stuff the team… I just broke Duo Maxwell… oh, every girl in the school will form a conspiracy against me! I'm a dead woman!'

Duo flashed her another dazzling smile, albeit a slightly crooked smile, and stared at her with wavering cobalt orbs, "I'm fine don't worry. Good aim, by the way, you made the team."

"I was not_ aiming_, I-" Hilde protested, but she was interrupted, as another girl from the team knelt down beside them, looking very anxious.

"What happened?" she asked as Duo's eyes slowly closed, blocking out the striking vibrancy of his bright eyes.

-x- -x- -x-

"You knocked him out with a tennis ball?" Relena laughed, humoured by her friend's antics, and started hanging up her clothes in her own, new 'head girl' wardrobe.

Hilde nodded, knowing that Relena couldn't see her, but doing it anyway, "He's lying unconscious in the medical room." She added solemnly.

Relena laughed again, "Holy crap, Hilde that must have been a hard swing."

Hilde moaned and dug her face into Relena's pillow.

"So, do you think that you made the team?" Relena joked, as she lifted a scarf out of her box, and wrapped it around her neck, posing her 'Vogue' shot for Hilde.

"Nice," Hilde commented, "I made it, he thinks that I aimed for his face."

"Ouch, that's not too good. Especially not for the bet," she laughed once again and Hilde noted that she had been in very good form since receiving her own room, "Oh goodness, look at the time Hilde, you should get going or we'll both get into trouble."

"Yeah, yeah, you just want me out of here so that you can bring Heero in and show him the 'true you'."

"Hmm… sounds like an idea," Relena teased, throwing a pillow at Hilde's head.

"Hey good aim, you should try out for the team too-"

"No thanks, Hil." Relena shoved her friend out of the room and walked her to the common room exit, cherishing the feel of the plush carpet beneath her bare feet.

"Okay, well, I'll see you in the morning," Hilde called back to her from the corridors as Relena pushed the heavy wooden door shut.

Twirling around swiftly, with a bright smile on her face as she replayed Hilde's story in her head, she froze.

Heero was lying casually on the common room couch, a book in his hands and staring at her with a raised eyebrow and a curious look painted upon his tanned face. His dark hair was chaotically dangling across his forehead and slightly obscuring his piercing eyes from view, however it just added to the mysterious aura around him.

His long body was stretched out and his muscular arms were propped up against a cushion and holding the thick novel in his long sturdy hands. As she stared at him, feeling her heart rate hasten in its paces, his Prussian blue eyes glinted at her underneath the warm glow of the lamp, cutting into her and causing a sudden shiver to chase its way rapidly down her spine, like a jolt of electricity.

Without thinking of what she was doing, she smiled faintly, "Hey, Yuy," and skipped happily to her room, leaving Heero staring after the door with a disturbed look on his dark face, wondering where that had suddenly come from.

* * *

**Come on guys! Review, dammit! I got twelve for the first chapter, and since then, the count's dropped considerably. PLEASE? Just review, I need inspiration, to know that I'm not just writing for no reason.**

**Thanks to all those glorious people who DO review! **

**Love yaz**

**Allura**


	5. One Step Forward

**Wanna Bet?**

**Chapter five: One Step Forward**

Relena opened her eyes slowly, curious cerulean orbs dancing around the slightly unfamiliar room. She sat up slowly, eyes scanning surreptitiously for her raven-haired best friend, but as her eyes adjusted properly, she remembered that she now inhabited a room, all to herself.

As she inhaled, the sweet arousing scent of fresh coffee flooded her mind and she frowned, confusedly as she slipped out of her cotton sheets and draping a gown around her small body, made her way out to the common room.

The cool air whipped her face as she stepped into the other room, sleepy eyes searching for their early morning; wake up routine of fresh coffee.

"Here," a mug was pushed into her hands by strong, tanned masculine ones; the deep voice stirred her mind as she stared down, into the dark liquid swirling, alluringly in her cup.

"Umm, thanks," she answered, frowning slightly as she glanced up to meet absurdly sharp eyes, "Where'd the coffee come from?"

Heero pointed to the open area behind them, where rested a small fridge, a kettle and a toaster. Relena smiled, amused at her headmaster's thoughtfulness. "Have they always been there?"

"No," Heero answered, uninterestedly as he turned away from her to throw himself into a lounging position on the couch, "I imagine that he had them fitted last night."

Relena nodded her head, somewhat dumbly, not knowing what to say, and instead she decided to settle herself into a chair opposite the dark, brooding brunette.

Placing the cup to her lips cautiously, she cast one last wary look to her roommate and hoped; silently that he hadn't poisoned it out of spite.

"Impressive," she alleged as the liquid passed down her throat, its warmth quickly travelling through her and dispersing some form of heat into her body, "Did you make this _all _by yourself?"

If Heero felt somewhat insulted by her comment, he didn't show it, instead he turned to her, eyes tearing themselves away from the window to stare icily into hers and with an impassive voice, he replied, "No, I ordered room service."

Relena shot him a sceptical look; however, Heero just raised a dark eyebrow and smirked lightly at her.

"What date is it?"

"The first of December," Heero answered hastily.

"December… already?" Relena asked, her fingers playing with the mug in her hands.

"That is what I said, right?" Heero answered; his voice emotionless, and his face devoid of all emotion.

A resounding hammering echoed from the door and Heero rose, quickly, off his seat and found his way across the common room floor, still avoiding the full and empty boxes that lay scattered, unceremoniously across the wooden boards.

"Trowa," his deep voice greeted as he opened the door fully, allowing the tall, light brown haired boy to enter, "What brings you here?" His voice was indifferent, but in a way, it held slightly less emotion than it did when he talked to her, if that was possible.

"I just wanted to check out the new accommodation, see if it's fit for a few good bashes." The tall boy replied, his voice quiet, yet clearly understood. Relena twisted her head around from where she was sitting the view the two boys; she scowled slightly at Heero.

"Don't even think about it." She warned, seriously.

"I wasn't," he replied, throwing a furtive glance in Trowa's direction, "Don't wind her up, she doesn't have much of a sense of humour."

Relena's jaw fell open and she stared at the irritating boy in shock, "_I'm_ the one who doesn't have a sense of humour?"

Heero nodded his head curtly, his face serious, and ably keeping the grin from pacing across his lips, "That's right."

Trowa smiled at her kindly, shaking his head at the pair, before leaning his head down slightly to whisper covertly into Heero's ear, when he pulled back, he was grinning surreptitiously.

Heero nodded again, a slight, faint smile tugging at his lips as his eyes met Relena's, and if she wasn't dreaming, she was pretty sure she saw them flash with something, which certainly wasn't hatred. She swallowed nervously, wondering what it was that they were planning.

With one last flash of a smile in her direction, Trowa stealthily slipped out of the room, consequently leaving the head boy and her alone.

Heero ignored her and swiftly stalked to his room, his door clicking quietly into place behind him.

Relena stared at the door, feeling a strong sense of puzzlement wash over her… boys… she'd never understand them.

-x- -x- -x-

Hilde paced up and down the patch of corridor outside the double white doors, fretfully, her mind arguing and debating whether she should go in or not. In the end, she made up her mind that it was worth her while to enter.

She pushed heavily against the painted white doors and they swung open easily, portraying to her, the medical room with a few white beds lined up against the wall, only one occupied by a handsome young boy.

"Well, if it isn't the newest member of our tennis team," he called out to her, a cheery grin plastered on his face and his eyes glinting brightly with mischief, "How are you, Schbeiker?"

"I'm so sorry, Du- Maxwell, I really am. Are you okay?" Hilde stuttered, making her way over to the bed.

Duo swung his legs over the edge of the bed and clasped his hands around the support bars, "I'm fine Hil, and don't worry 'bout it, no harm done. Now, if my memory serves me right, I asked you a question first, which you still haven't answered…"

"I' m okay, not that it matters, I just can't believe that I did that to you, I swear I didn't-" Hilde started, but she was interrupted as a stout woman bustled into the room with a glass of water and her hand firmly clasped around something in her palm.

"Right, Mister Maxwell, take these and you're free to go," The school nurse told him, handing him the tablets and once he had threw them into his mouth, she quickly passed him the glass of water which he downed rapidly.

"Great," Duo said combing his fingers back through his bangs and pushing them out of his eyes, but his actions were worthless as they fell back to their usual position once again. Hilde's hand twitched and she knew that she was itching to the brush them back. "I feel better already, Mrs Kerr," He beamed cheekily at the nurse who smiled back kindly.

"Maxwell," she said in a light warning tone, "off you go."

Duo jumped gracefully off the bed and grinning, he caught Hilde's hand and pulled her out of the room.

Hilde, who was staring, dazedly at their entwined hands, followed clumsily, "Maxwell, where are we going?"

"I heard there's gonna be some fun endeavours taking place outside, Trowa told me this morning, which is why I rushed my release in the medical ward." He replied, still tugging her along the halls.

"Umm… what do you mean?"

"You'll see," he twisted his head around to look at her, before winking roguishly.

-x- -x- -x-

Heero grabbed a jacket from his chair, before swiftly making his way around his room, picking up articles of clothing that he thought would be useful.

After a few minutes, he paced over to his mirror, and scrutinising his refection, he wondered what was missing… 'Gloves', he thought.

"What _are _you doing?" Relena demanded; setting her novel to the side of the couch and moving her legs as Heero brushed past her, sidestepping boxes and rummaging through others, searching for his damned gloves.

"Where have they gotten to?" he muttered under his breath, however Relena heard his mutterings and wrapped her fingers around his strong, muscular arm, ignoring the fissional sparks that danced along her at the contact.

"What gotten to? What are you looking for? Heero tell me what's going on!"

Heero turned to face her, his emotions masked by his stoic guise, "these," he replied, plucking a pair of thick gloves from a box.

"Where are you going?" Relena enquired, placing her hands firmly on her hips.

Heero, noticing this action, ran his eyes along her slim body before meeting her eyes, and noting the light blush that was tainting her cheeks, "Aren't we inquisitive today?"

"Just answer me, Yuy!" she said awkwardly, becoming rather hot and bothered by his wandering eyes. He smirked, knowingly.

How he loved riling her up.

"There's a fight going on outside." He answered simply, returning to his task of rummaging through boxes.

"And… you're going out to stop it, right?"

Heero raised an eyebrow before laughing, "No, I'm going out to join them."

"But you're head boy; you have to do something about it-" Relena protested, however she was cut off as a heavy hat was placed on her head; she glared at Heero who was examining the hat, somewhat thoughtfully.

"Yeah, that'll do… have you any warm clothes?"

Relena scowled deeply, her eyebrows knitting together as she glared at her colleague.

"Of course I do, but I'm not joining you in some childish banter-"

"Go change," Heero ordered, placing his hand on the small of her back and guiding her into her room and closing the door firmly behind her, ignoring her protesting cries, "And hurry up, if you don't come out in five minutes, I'm coming in to get you."

"What?" Relena exclaimed; her high-pitched voice muffled through the wooden barrier of the door.

Heero smirked darkly as he leant casually against the wall beside her door, listening to the sound of drawers being opened and slammed shut and folding his arms across his chest.

He was going to teach 'Miss Prissy' in there how to have some _real_ fun.

* * *

Okay, guys... thank you SO much for the reviews! You rock, like no joke, you really do. Anyways, this story is fun, and i love to write it, so it shall be updated quite often in comparison to my others. Well for now anyways. 

Hope you had a good read!

Love yaz

Allura


	6. Making Notice

**Wanna Bet?**

**Chapter six: Making Notice **

Relena slammed her drawers shut with a raucous shove, causing the dresser to shake violently under the pressure, and her beautiful, delicate mirror to rattle disconcertedly, threatening to fall off from its place and crash, brusquely to the floor.

Her pale hands jumped up quickly to steady the quivering mirror and Relena silently cursed, under her breath, for being so reckless.

It was strange how Heero could bring out _so many_ strong emotions in her, just by _being_ there. It was unfair, it really was. How was she to manage to manipulate that cold, calculated beast, into falling for her?

Frankly, she believed that it was _the impossible._

She struggled into her winter overcoat and wrapped a cashmere scarf around her neck, before pulling elegant leather gloves onto her long fingers.

Studying herself in front of the mirror, she smiled and pulled Heero's heavy, woollen hat further down, over her ears. It rather suited her, _strangely, _and she didn't think that she could give it back, it was too nice on her and plus, it _was_ Heero's.

"What am I thinking?" she cried aloud, grimacing strongly at her reflection. Seriously. Heero must have put_ something_ into that coffee.

"I don't know…" Relena jumped in shock at the new voice that was suddenly interrupting her thoughts, "what are you saying?"

"Heero!" She called out, her heart smashing against her ribcage in her chest, from the recent shock it had just experienced. And with all the force that she could muster, she shoved the handsome, sullen boy out of her room, "How did you get in here so quietly?"

Heero's Prussian eyes glinted dangerously as he threw her a seductive wink before beckoning her out of her room, "I have my ways." He said as his strong hand wrapped safely around her small wrist.

"Look, I don't know, it's rather cold outside, and I don't like being cold-" she was silenced as Heero's long finger slid across her lips, effectively silencing her, he smirked slightly before dragging her out of the door.

-x- -x- -x-

The white snow crunched beneath her feet as she took large strides, trying to keep up with the taller boy in front.

"Hold up," she called to him, before grabbing his wrist. She tugged him around to look at her, "What's the rush. It's calm out here." She spread her arms out wide, gesturing to the serene open area around them, and stared up to the white-grey sky, noting the tiny white flakes that fell onto her nose, melting seconds after contact.

"That's what they want you to think; it's the strategic ones that you have to look out for, the sneaky little culprits that will attack you just as you-"

He cut off through his speech, spotting something from the corner of his eyes, and staring in silence past her.

"What?" Hilde asked; twisting her head to seek what was captivating the boy's interests.

"Shh," he grabbed her hand and pulled her tightly to his side, "listen," he whispered gently, his hot breath numbing her freezing ears, "I've got a plan. . ."

Hilde smiled, slowly, as he revealed his devious plan. Traits like these caused her to doubt the 'arrogant player' attitude that he had been dubbed by most of the girls. She cast a secretive glance over to him, taking in the way that his eyes glistened in excitement, the way that the snow fell in small slivers, nestling only seconds in his chestnut hair before dissipating completely. He caught her gaze and frowned slightly, before smirking, winking, and dashing off.

Hilde sighed. What a confusing boy he was.

-x- -x- -x-

The bitter cold wind chilled her to the bone, even in her heavy, warm clothes; it seeped through and caressed her with icy fingers.

"Where are we going?" she whined, as Heero traipsed through the school grounds, his feet silent and stealth-like as he moved cautiously through the thick snow, his hand carefully wrapped around a thick ball of snow, compressed so tightly that Relena was sure it would render someone unconscious at contact, "this is stupid."

Heero stopped, and spun around to glare at her, his dark eyes even colder than the weather. Relena shuddered.

"Silence," he whispered; Relena rolled her eyes in irritation, but before she could protest, Heero had covered her mouth with his strong hand. Relena shoulders drooped, and she cursed him silently, for constantly making physical contact with her.

Seriously, that boy would be the death of her. She shoved him away.

"Heero, stop. Doing. That!" She protested. Heero grimaced, slapping his palm to his forehead in frustration.

"I told you to be quiet. You just gave away our position now," he complained, outraged.

"Well, if you would answer my questions, then I wouldn't have to keep asking, would I?" Her hands moved to her hips, instinctively, as she pushed her weight onto one leg, falling into her moody stance.

Heero scowled, "No." he answered, simply, before elaborating, his eyes piercing straight into hers, "If I answered your questions, then that would just give you more reason to persistently ask more."

Relena opened her mouth to retort back, indignantly, but in seconds, she found herself flung to the ground, Heero's strong body pressed tightly against hers, sending a sudden warmth though her very cold body.

"Attack!" She heard cries, almost warrior like; she felt Heero wrap an arm around her waist, and they were suddenly running, her feet moving like clockwork to his actions as snowballs pelted her, each sending chilling vibes through her body.

She laughed, childishly, a thrilling rush coursing through her and adrenaline rapidly being pumped into her blood. She tried to fall behind, but she then realised that Heero's hand was still entangled with hers, and she forced her legs to keep running to keep up with him.

-x- -x- -x-

"What _was_ that?" She whispered, the cold water leaking in through her soaking jeans from where she knelt in the snow.

"Sounds like some poor souls have been ambushed." Duo turned to her, the shade of the forestry trees casting his face into shadows, giving him a mysterious, dark aura, "This is getting serious, Hilde. We need to call in reinforcement."

Hilde pursed her lips together tight, but she wasn't able to stifle her giggles.

"What?" Duo asked, completely serious, "We do. We need to find the guys."

"What guys?" Hilde asked curiously, losing her hysteric laughter.

"My guys." Was all he offered her before he beckoned her towards him and they continued to move, stealthily, through the trees.

-x- -x- -x-

"No, no, no…" Relena fell to her knees, her hand eventually flailing loose from Heero's, and throbbing as she pushed it deeply into the white, wintry substance beneath her.

"No, what?" Heero asked, kneeling down to stare at the hysterical girl.

"I can't run anymore;" Relena giggled, as she sunk into the snow, "Can't we just rest, for a while?"

Heero nodded before letting himself fall down beside her, watching her carefully as she lay on her back, her mouth wide open to allow the snowdrops to fall on her tongue.

Shaking his head at her childish antics, Heero gathered a new batch of snow in his gloved hands, curling it up tightly before pressing it forcefully against both of his palms, allowing the substance to freeze and become solidified in his grip.

"Can you teach me how to do that?" Relena asked, sitting up as she studied him, "It'll come in handy, in the long run."

Heero contemplated her comment for a second and then gathered another, new batch of snow and pushed it into her hands. "Now curl it into a ball, pressing it firmly with both hands. If you do this, the particles will interlink and cause the snowball to become stronger, therefore, when you throw it, it will go further without falling apart."

Relena nodded before cupping her hands together and pushing as hard as she could against the snow.

"No." Heero's hands enveloped hers and held them together, strongly, yet not enough to hurt her.

Relena smiled, her heart beating fervently in her chest, before removing her hands from his and staring at the small formed ball in front of her with a proud grin.

"That's rubbish. It could have been held for longer. It'll turn to mush as soon as you let go," Heero remarked.

"Are you sure about that, sparky?" Relena asked curiously, a devious sparkle in her eye.

"Positive."

"Okay, then, so you won't mind if I test your philosophy?" She smirked at him and he raised a curious eyebrow.

"Well, I know that I'm correct. You do what you want."

Relena shrugged before chucking the snowball at him. Heero's eyes widened in surprise as it hit him.

As predicted, the ball liquefied slightly on contact with his face and he brought up an arm, wiping the liquid away from his face before glaring at the young honey-blonde before him.

"You shouldn't have done that!" Heero growled. He jumped up, quickly tackling her to the ground, his body colliding with hers in the process.

He stared down at her, his face moving closer to hers by the second. Relena breathed in deeply, awaiting his next movement. Heero grabbed a handful of snow and with rapid movements, shoved it in her face. Relena shrieked in protest, thrashing her legs and arms in the process.

"Ahhh! Heero!"

"Shh…" he clamped his hand over her mouth, once again, effectively silencing her, "it's an improvement anyway." He smirked.

Relena scowled, slowly stopping her reckless thrashes and laying still, beneath him. She traced her gloved hands up his stomach and to his chest, her eyes focused on his as she noticed the faint surprise apparent beneath the usual icy glares that protruded from his Prussian blues. Gripping his jacket in her hands, she proceeded to pull him closer to her until he was merely centimetres from her face.

Heero frowned unsurely.

With sudden movements, that she knew would surprise the surly boy, she spread her hands out, ensuring that her palms were flat against his chest, and shoved abruptly.

Heero shot back, away from her, shock stimulating his stoic face for only seconds before he rolled off her.

"I think that we should continue now. I had my break." Relena commented as she rose from the ground to hover over Heero, smiling sweetly.

Heero scowled as she walked away, and rose quickly from the ground, muttering incoherently, under his breath.

-x- -x- -x-

"Huh."

He was leaning against a tree; his figure crouched to the ground to disguise him from prying passers. His bright eyes were scanning their surroundings persistently, blinking every once in a while to prevent his eyes from freezing over.

"Huh."

Vigilance, careful observation, alert attention and caution were all very important factors in this game. One slip-up could mean 'game over' for his team. Which reminded him; where were they?

"Huh."

Duo's attention wavered. Focus on the perimeters. Forget the girl, for now, she's only a distraction.

"Huh."

His concentration snapped. Breathing in deeply, Duo turned to Hilde, "_What_, are you doing?" He eyed the small raven-haired girl, who was slumped on the cold ground, her back pressed firmly against the thick trunk of a tree as she stared at him.

"Huh." Hilde breathed out a small puff of air, which emerged from her mouth in a misted haze, "I'm cold, bored and restless." She shifted uncomfortably on her spot, "I'm an energetic girl, Duo, I can't stand staying in one place for this amount of time."

Duo sighed, returning his gaze to beyond their hiding spot for a brief second. All was still clear. "We've only been here for half an hour, Hilde."

"Exactly." She countered, rubbing her gloved hands together rapidly, in order to create some form of heat for her body.

"This is where we said that we would meet Hilde. We were to scan the perimeters of the school, and once we finished that, we were to gather here, form a team, develop a strategic plan, and then attack."

Hilde's eyes narrowed at the boy ahead of her. "Cold," she complained, "I'm freezing. I need to move to get some heat energy into me. I know I'm not too good at the biology thing, but I know that all humans need heat to survive." She shivered, her faintly blue lips trembling and her teeth chattering, "Right now, if I don't move, I'm going to die. Or get frostbite. I don't like those conclusions, they're both pretty nasty."

Duo turned to look at her. She did look rather cold; he guessed that he should have warned her earlier. Closing his eyes for a succinct moment, to think, he replied, "Fifteen more minutes, if they're not here by then, we'll move on." Hilde groaned, curling up into a small ball to trap some of her remaining warmth.

"Here," Duo shrugged out of his jacket, with swift movements, and threw it at Hilde before returning to his guarded stance.

Hilde stared, unsurely at the jacket, throwing Duo one last surreptitious glance and then pulling it over her head and tugging it over her body. She could still feel the heat from Duo's body, which spread warmth into hers immediately. Smiling slightly, she inhaled deeply, cherishing the masculine scent of his cologne, and wrapping her arms firmly around her body, hugging the jacket to her.

"_On one condition, you don't fall in love with your targets."_ Hilde frowned slightly.

Silence settled on the couple as Hilde stared at Duo in confusion, trying to decode her scrambled thoughts. Suddenly, a strong hand bound across her mouth, suffocating her voice as another wrapped around her thin waist, and tugged harshly.

Duo heard the scattered movements from behind him. He turned around to scold the restless girl, but stopped halfway upon noticing that she wasn't there.

He frowned, perplexed. She wouldn't have just _left_.

"Hilde?" He was met with silence and a slight rustling in the far distance. His eyes darted down to the place that she had been and he knelt down, curiously, before his sharp eyes traced over the awkward marks left behind. There had been a struggle.

Nope. She _definitely_ hadn't just left.

* * *

**A/N –** (Smiles) Oh the fun of it. Poor Hilde, I love her, she's just so cute! And Duo, being all courteous and giving her his jacket, how … precious. I wish I had a Duo, that would be fun (grins) Lol. Anyways, what did ya think? Good / bad? Satisfactory? Lol 

Sorry for the long wait, hopefully the next chapter won't take so long.

Thanks to all of my beautiful readers and reviewers out there, I heart you all:

**Pureevil230, Saigo no Megami, Kimzy Hardykinz, gundamgirl818, blissful trinity, DogDemonK9, shimmay, Luci-chan, CrimsonDragon010, Carol Nawali, gundampilotx24, rockerchick224 and ABeautifulDisgrace.**

Love Yaz

Allura


	7. Boycotting Emotions

**Wanna Bet?**

**Chapter seven: Boycotting Emotions**

He was angry with her.

This was the only conclusion that she could come up with to explain his irrational behaviour. Heero hadn't spoken to her for over half an hour now, and whenever she had tried to make some sort of conversation with him, he had chosen to ignore her.

This infuriated Relena. All right, so she had teased him a little bit, back at their stopping point, but he had done the same to her, right? Moreover, why would _Heero Yuy_ be angry with her for not wanting to _kiss_ him? If that was, even what he was angry about. The whole situation, she thought to herself, was completely absurd.

"Heero," she started, her boots trudging through the thick snow as she walked, "this is ridiculous. Talk to me!"

Her words fell onto deaf ears, as Heero seemed not to hear her demands. He simply stared blankly ahead, his sharp eyes never wavering from his destination, as he strode further and faster through the heavy white substance beneath them. If she didn't know any better, she would say that he was trying to get away from her, but even Heero wasn't _that _childish. She frowned, pensively, before turning her cerulean blues to stare at him. Was he?

Her teeth chattered relentlessly in her mouth, and her breaths, that came flurrying out in puffs of white mist, were falling into an irregular pattern as she rapidly lost heat. Heero, however, seemed completely unaffected by the cold. The only part of him that confirmed that he had been out in the cold at all, were his faintly blue lips, which didn't even seem to tremble as much as hers.

"What, did I do?" Relena dashed forward, her irritation finally unconfined and grabbed Heero's strong arm as tightly as she could. She wrenched it towards her so that the taller boy fell to a complete halt. "To receive this punishment."

Heero glared frostily at her, his Prussian blue eyes appeared even colder than the harsh wind that was currently numbing her body, and for this reason, she felt her heart plummet in her chest.

"Punishment?" He asked, somewhat incredulously, but his disbelief quickly faded and his usual stoic mask came to guard his emotions again. He laughed, humourlessly, before tugging his arm out of her reach and marching forward again.

"Yes, punishment," she snapped, jogging to fall into place beside him again, "what else is this? It's 'silent treatment', Heero. That's a form of punishment. Now kindly, tell me, what I did to annoy you so badly."

Heero sighed deeply, and his eyes quickly glanced towards her. Relena was staring up at him, her face painted thickly with confusion. He shook his head reluctantly, "I'm not a talkative guy, Relena."

"I know that," she explained, "but you hadn't been this quiet earlier. Until, well …" she fell silent as she watched his eyes grow darker.

"There's nothing wrong with me, if that's what you're asking." He told her, his eyes gluing themselves ahead again.

"Really?" Relena replied, unconvinced.

"Yes." He growled, angrily, in a tone that informed her the conversation was over. She didn't dare respond, her attempt would only be cast futile, anyway and she bowed her head in silence.

-x- -x- -x-

His dark shoes shuffled through the snow, slowly leaving behind a deep trail of heavy footprints. However, it didn't matter, in about half an hour, they would have filled up with snow again, and any traces of him would vanish along with the evidence. It had been almost an hour since Hilde disappeared, and he still hadn't found any vestige of her. His shoulders slumped in despair. Maybe she _had_ just got up and left. And with his jacket too. Duo scoffed, and laughed bitterly, his hands caressing his arms to shelter them from the harsh winds.

How could she do that to him?

He hoped, desperately, that she had a damned good reason for disappearing.

He had two options; he could go back and meet up with the other pilots, or continue to look for the girl who had been tugging at his emotions all day. He chose the latter, and not completely understanding his choice, picked up his speed and continued to hunt for the raven-haired girl.

-x- -x- -x-

She thrashed violently under the sturdy clutch that she was currently captivated in, but to no avail… her actions were futile. Against her opponent, she was powerless … vulnerable … weak.

She had tried screaming, at the top of her wavering lungs, however, the fixed hand that was clasped across her mouth, silenced her motions, with a taut seize.

Her dark eyes were roaming, wildly, taking in every single surrounding as a frantic panic began to settle into her system.

Finally, she was released, and her body was allowed to drape, limply, across the wet ground. A light, amused laughter, snapped her from her daze and Hilde managed to push herself into a sitting position once again and stare at her captor.

"Dagger," she cried, anger rising rapidly within, drowning out the fear and panic. "What do you think that you're playing at?" Lifting a hand, steadily, she slapped the blonde haired boy across the face.

Bright, hazel green eyes, blinked at her in confusion, before suddenly illuminating with an infuriated glow.

"_Me_?" He asked, his handsome face twisting into an unpleasant scowl. "I should be the one asking that question. What do _you_ think _you're_ playing at? Conversing with the enemy…" He glowered uncharacteristically, his livid eyes glaring at his dark-haired friend, as a tanned hand swept tousled locks from his face.

Hilde grimaced, "The enemy? Dagger, what are you-"

"Maxwell." He barked, his strong hand tugging at Duo's jacket as he watched the realisation dawn on Hilde's face.

"Oh …" her face dropped, "no, I'm not …" she hesitated, trying to come to terms with what was going on. "Are they on the opposing team?"

"Yes!" Dagger sighed. His eyes suddenly looking much brighter and luminous than before, "they always have been. He's using you, Hil, to get to us. Those guys have well plotted-out strategies, which I'm sure you've noticed, already."

Hilde nodded, unsure of what to say. Had Duo been using her? Was he so determined to win this stupid snow war, that he didn't care to think about her feelings … that he just went ahead and used her, without thinking of how it would affect her? Was _she_ so naïve to fall for it?

Dammit, yes, she was.

"I'm sorry, Hilde." Dagger's face softened as he observed her anxiety, and he ruffled his golden blonde hair, guilt clearly evident on his chiselled face.

Hilde breathed in deeply and raised her head slightly, so that her gaze met his and dark sapphires clashed cogently with hazel green.

Dagger; also known as Rain Stryker, was her childhood best friend and partner in crime. The pranks that they had pulled together, years ago, still haunted her mind and sent her regularly into manic hysterics. But as they had grown older, and Hilde's feelings towards him had begun to grow into something much more complex than she could comprehend, they began to drift apart. But never completely. Dagger would never allow it. He had always ensured that the link between the two of them remained firm, and for this, she admired him. He was popular, and gorgeous, with half of the female population falling at his feet, and Hilde, well, she just didn't quite fall into that social circle. High school was just never the same.

"You like him, don't you." He stated pointedly, a hint of uncertainty creeping through his coarse voice as he spoke.

Hilde hesitated; possibly the worst thing that she could have done in this situation, but she did, and in that brief moment, she had told him everything.

He nodded slowly, absorbing the truth in the cold silence. Hilde shuddered before looking at him.

"Oh no," she gasped, realising what he thought, "no, I don't. He's just a friend. I've only known him for a short while, really. Plus, he's Duo Maxwell! Do you think I'm stupid enough to fall for the school's resident bad boy and player?"

"Yes." Hilde grimaced at his words; they were harsh and unbroken as they chimed out the ruthless truth, "As is every other girl in this school who happens to be lapping up his charm and sweet talk." Dagger scoffed, disgusted. "I thought you were different."

"I am!" Hilde practically screamed, but she was silenced as his hand once again shot out and pressed firmly against her mouth.

"Shh …" he hushed.

"But I am, Dagger," she whispered, her wide, royal blue eyes pleading with him, "I am different. I was, I admit, kind of falling for his charismatic traits, but I've realized now, what he's doing. Or was_ trying_ to do."

Dagger reluctantly nodded his head, understandingly. "Be careful. I've watched girls fall into his trap _way_ too easily. The best thing for you to do is to stay away from him."

"Oh," Hilde's heart sunk in her chest, "I can't."

"What do you mean you can't? Of course you can … just avoid him. You don't have _that_ many classes together."

Hilde sighed; "There's a bet, you see, and I really need to win it…" she drifted off, unsure of how to finish.

"A bet?" Dagger cocked a blonde eyebrow, inquisitively. "Tell me about it."

Hilde, shivering against the cold and tugging, persistently at the large jacket around her, explained everything that she knew about the bet and its terms to her long time friend.

"I see," Dagger said, slowly, as she finished. Then, after a few minutes silence, he added, "What can I do to help?"

Caught off guard, Hilde stared at him, confused, and then grinned deviously. "Actually," she started, "I think I have a plan."

"Well then," Dagger said, an almost dangerous smile tugging at his lips, causing Hilde to realize just how much she had missed spending time with him, "let the mayhem begin."

-x- -x- -x-

Snowflakes landed lightly on her lashes, but as she blinked, they melted, and quickly faded as they slipped down her face in small, condensed droplets. Relena shook her head abruptly and wiped her face dry with the gloved palm of her hands.

The snow was getting heavier … thicker, now falling in large, vast amounts from the bland grey sky above. It had been predicted that a blizzard would hit within the next few days. Relena sighed. She sincerely hoped that she wouldn't end up being caught in it, her Christmas exams were drawing near, and becoming ill was not at the top of her list of things to do.

Murdering Heero Yuy, however, happened to be number one.

Heero, a few feet ahead of her, halted in his steps, glancing warily around, before proceeding, this time somewhat slower than previously.

Holding a hand up, he signalled for her to stop, as he went ahead. Relena scowled, rubbing her hands together, in order to restore some of the feeling in her fingers from the numbness that they were currently captured within.

Heero sauntered slowly forwards, before disappearing into the darkness of the trees. Relena scanned wearily around her, noting the dark glow that was merging through the grey sky, alerting her of how late it was getting.

A few seconds later, Heero re-emerged, jerking his head at her in a gesture for her to follow. She obeyed, compliantly, following the broodingly dark boy into the dense forest.

"Is this really safe?" She asked, quietly.

"What do you think?" Heero replied, brushing sharp branches away from his face, as he moved hastily forward, seemingly knowing where he was going.

"You did it again." Relena whispered, angrily, frustrating burning fiercely inside, "you answered my question with a question!"

"Shh…"

"No." Relena answered stubbornly, her hands crossing childishly in front of her chest as she fell to a halt beside him.

"We're here." He informed, pushing the shrubbery forward with his foot, allowing them entrance to a small gap amidst the thick trees. Relena inhaled abruptly. It seemed that they weren't the only ones in this hidden area. Apparently… it was a gathering point.

Three of Heero's friends were assembled in a small circle, apparently waiting for his presence to arrive. She recognized them all; they were in her year at school, Quatre Winner sat next to her in advanced mathematics and Trowa Barton was taking Politics with her. Wufei Chang, she wasn't quite acquainted with, and from the glares that he was shooting her, she could tell that he didn't want to.

"Heero," Quatre said, greeting his friend with a warm smile. The others just nodded their acknowledgements. "Relena?" He asked, sounding genuinely surprised, his forehead creasing slightly with perplexity before he turned to shoot a questioning glance at Heero.

Heero lifted his eyebrow, casually, before shrugging and glancing around.

"Where's Duo? Shouldn't he be here by now?"

"Yeah, he should be," Quatre answered, "he was let out of the medical ward this morning."

"Talking about me again, I see." Duo bounded through a gap in the trees and threw himself recklessly down beside Wufei, who snarled at him, irritated. Duo just rolled his eyes in response.

"Where were you?" Wufei growled, "We've been waiting for you."

"Oh really?" Duo asked, sarcastically, raising his eyebrows in mock surprise, "And here I was, under the impression, that _he_ had only arrived." He jerked his head towards Heero, and Wufei scowled, caught out at his game.

Duo smiled, but it seemed somewhat forced, "I was looking for someone."

She didn't know why she did it, but the words just spilled out of her mouth, automatically, "Hilde."

Duo's head shot up to her, his eyes taking her in, as if only noticing her presence for the first time, Relena felt a blush rising to her cheeks.

He nodded his head slowly, before tactfully changing the subject, "Well, the competition has been called off. There's a gale force snowstorm on its way, apparently it's pretty bad."

The other pilots agreed to head back to the school, but Relena zoned out, her thoughts drifting back to Hilde. Where was she? Hadn't she said last night, that she would visit Duo this morning, in the medical rooms? And why was Duo searching for her- a sudden tug at her elbow, pulled her swiftly from her reminisces and she spun around to stare at Duo.

Another quick glance around, had told her that the other pilots had left, and Heero was stepping through the shrubs, leaving for the trek to the school.

She opened her mouth to say something, but Duo silenced her by speaking first.

"She was with me this morning," he stared at her, knowing that she would easily comprehend what he was talking about, and Relena studied the boy carefully. She didn't know him very well at all, but six years with the roguish heart-breaker had portrayed to her the picture of a confident, outgoing and handsome young boy, who had an eccentric gift for pulling pranks and practical jokes. All of this told her that he was a light-hearted boy, who wouldn't let simple things get to him, so why, now, had he lost the infamous twinkle in his cobalt eyes and the shattering smirk that he usually adorned as he strode through the school corridors?

Relena nodded, encouraging him to continue.

"I persuaded her to join me out here, and fight for our team. She came." He halted, his expression clouded with a heavy mist of confusion as he dropped his gaze to the leaf littered earth beneath them, "We were here. Waiting, for the others and then … and then suddenly," he shook his head disbelievingly and Relena inhaled deeply, waiting in suspense as she tried to remain patient, "she was gone." He snapped his fingers, "just like that."

Relena frowned, "What do you mean by … gone?"

"Just … gone." He seemed as bewildered as she felt, but as if he had remembered where they were, he quickly gestured for her to leave. "I'm sorry, we should probably get going."

Relena shook her head abruptly, "Where is she?"

Duo sighed, "Truthfully, I don't know." He shrugged lightly, "But I think that she was mad at me, or something. I don't fully understand why, but it's the impression that I get. I mean, she knows her way around the school, and its grounds. We do circuit training out here, so I'm pretty sure that she'll be able to find her way back." His mind quickly flashed back to the marks on the ground. Had she struggled? Should he tell Relena this, or would this only prove to worry the girl even more? He decided against it. He would search the school for her as soon as they got back, and if she was nowhere to be found, then he would alert people.

"Did she storm off?" Relena asked.

"No. I don't think so."

"But you think she's okay?"

"Yeah." Duo answered, somewhat reassuringly. 'I hope so,' he added silently.

"That's good." Relena released a sigh of relief.

"I have to get you back quickly, or Heero will murder me." Duo mused aloud, his tone lighter than previously. He cast a quick look towards the honey-blonde girl beside him, to notice that her face was contorted with confusion.

"Why? Why would he do that?"

Duo laughed, "It was just the way that he looked at me before he left."

By the time the pair had reached the front doors of Harrison College, the sky had adorned a dark purple and red glow, which spread beautifully across the shadowed sky in magnificent multicoloured stripes. The last remaining threads of warmth had slipped from Relena's body and she was shivering uncontrollably as Duo pulled open the heavy wooden doors.

Immediately, a crowd of admirers greeted the pair. Or more, Duo was surrounded by a crowd of admirers. Relena used this opportunity to sneak away form the braided boy's side, and climb the stairs to her sanctuary. It had been a long day, and all she wanted to do now, was crawl into bed and sleep for what she wanted to be forever.

"Duo, baby," The crowd in front of him parted, like the red sea – literally parted – as a glistening blonde girl strode confidently towards her victim. "Where have you been? I've been looking for you all day." Her sycophants tailed her, like lovesick puppies, and Duo fought hard to resist the urge to roll his eyes.

"Out." He answered, simply.

Aimee cocked a perfect eyebrow, "Really? You're not going to elaborate on that?"

Duo smiled a small, half-smile, "Not now. I've something important to do, babe." He leant forward, pecking her quickly on the cheek, before frowning at their audience, who, at his lurid stare, quickly vanished off into the halls. "I'll see you later."

Aimee scowled as she stared after Duo's retreating back. He was up to something, and she knew it.

"Girls," she started, turning to her clique, "I want you to keep an eye on my boyfriend for me. If you see him doing anything suspicious or see him with any other …" she grimaced before reluctantly finishing, bitterly, "_Girls, _I want you to report to me immediately."

* * *

**A/N –** Yes I know … I am indeed very late with this one. I had to struggle to finish it. I'm very stressed out at the moment, but the thoughts of you guys, out there, made me continue to finish it and not abandon it completely. I hate it when other authors just leave stories hanging, unfinished, and here and now, I am going to promise you guys that I am not going to do that. Okay? 

Good. Now that we've got that cleared. Don't expect frequent updates, I won't be able to update _too_ regularly on any of my stories, as I've already stated that I am under a lot of pressure at the minute. Exams are drawing soon too, which is a totally bummer. Nevertheless, I won't be too long, probably about a month, maybe longer, for each story's update.

Another point that I would like to clarify, is the fact that some of you seem to think that I'm ripping off the whole Harry Potter scene and J.K.Rowling. Let me state, right now, that I live in the UK, as well as J.K. and that the school and plot that my story is based on has nothing to do with hers. It's just the fact that we are situated in the same area. The UK is very poplar with sending children to boarding schools, and this is probably why J.K and I both have used this idea. The school in this story is based on one situated in my area, known as Campbell College. Magnificent school, really, in fact, I heard it was rumoured to be one of the choices for Harry Potter's setting, but unfortunately, they picked another place. But back to the point. There are prefects and head girls and boys in both my school and Campbell College, and the only difference between Campbell and Harrison (the one from this story) is the fact that Harrison is a mixed school. Campbell is only for the boys.

I hope you understand this analogy, but if you don't, and have more questions, feel free to message me on the new messaging system, or email me (my account is on my profile) and I will happily answer any of your questions. Also, I love hearing from reviewers, in fact, the few that have contacted me, I would now identify as friends of mine, so please, do contact me. I love it. A lot.

And review! I love that too. A lot lot lot …

This chapter isn't very exciting, but I needed it to set a few scenes for me, and also to introduce Dagger into the situation. What do you guys think of him btw? Get used to him though … he's going to become an important character in this plot.

**Love yaz**

**Allura**


	8. A Reason for Contempt

**Wanna Bet?**

**Chapter eight: A Reason for Contempt**

"So let's run over the terms again…"

The mattress sunk slightly beneath her as she pushed her weight onto one side, her head propped up by her elbow and eyes gazing intently at the tall blonde boy kneeling beside the bed.

Hilde sighed and tossed her dark hair out of her eyes. Thankfully, her roommates had evacuated the dorm earlier that day to spend some time in the common room undoubtedly catching up on the latest gossip.

"Basically, Relena and I have to induce Heero and Duo to invite us to the Christmas Dance, willingly, of course, and not fall in love with them in the process. Apparently we have to remain 'dating' them till New Year's Eve, where the results of the wager will be determined." She explained, finishing with a slight scowl.

"That shouldn't be too hard." Dagger answered assertively, standing up from his position and sauntering over to the large bay window, overlooking the school grounds.

"That's easy for you to say. I'm not a charmer like you, I can't get dates easily. Besides, Duo has an impeccably beautiful girlfriend, whom I do not stand a chance competing against."

"Aimee Wright." Dagger said, quietly, turning to face her once again. Something flashed quickly across his eyes, but it was gone before she had a chance to interpret what it was. "She's trash anyway."

Hilde's jaw dropped, and she gawked at him in shock. "Don't say that!" She flung a pillow at him, but Dagger's quick reflexes had his hands grabbing the pillow, effortlessly, before it had a chance to reach its final destination. "Hold on," Hilde frowned as she tried to recollect her memories; faint visions of Dagger and a blonde-haired girl, making out in one of the school corridors, dashed across her mind, "She was your ex-girlfriend!" She squealed as comprehension finally dawned.

Yes, she could remember it, clearly, now. Rain Stryker and Aimee Wright, had been a couple last year, for almost a year.

Dagger smiled sadly at her, his hazel green eyes dulling with a hazy mist. "My ex-girlfriend." He repeated quietly.

"I'm so sorry," Hilde whispered, clambering off her bed and moving slowly and carefully towards the window, which Dagger was now staring out, profoundly intense eyes scanning across the dark vast ocean of indigo skies. She slipped her hand into his, squeezing gently with a reassuring grip. She hadn't meant to surface unwanted memories and emotions.

"Don't be." He said, brushing the matter aside.

"What happened?"

"What happened?" He scoffed; he tore his eyes away from the night's sky to look directly into hers. "Maxwell happened."

Feeling stunned, Hilde stared at him, searching his face for the truth. "But … you two broke up ages ago. Aimee and Duo only got together within the last week."

Dagger shrugged, indifferently, shaking his head.

"Last year, at the formal, we had … a row, over something stupid." He voiced, gruffly, Hilde raised her eyebrows and leant in closer, urging him to elaborate.

"Aimee didn't like that fact that I was talking to other girls. Apparently, I was flirting with them and not paying enough attention to her. I told her that it was harmless; that I was only talking, and that she shouldn't get so worked up about something so pathetic." He breathed in deeply before continuing, "It appears that that wasn't the correct thing to say at the moment in time, for she started screaming at me, telling me that it was hardly pathetic that I was hitting on other girls, and if that was the way I was going to act, she didn't want to be with me.

"Truthfully, I reckoned that she was being irrational and overdramatic, and stupidly, I told her this." He hesitated and Hilde waited patiently for him to carry on. "She threw her corsage at me and turned to walk away, but before she was out of sight, I added … 'Fine, if that's the way you're going to be, you're not worth my time anyway.'"

"Whoa. I'm sorry, I never knew." Hilde breathed, biting her bottom lip whilst looking at her friend, sympathetically. She knew that he hated pity, but how could she help it?

Dagger raised his eyebrows, "Really? You must be the only one. Everybody knew the next day."

"What did you do after that? And how does Duo fit into the equation?"

"I had tried calling her, but she wouldn't pick up. I even tried talking to her between classes, but her friends wouldn't allow me anywhere near her. Eventually, I found time to go to her dorm room, planning to apologize for being such an ass." He smiled slightly, and Hilde caught a glimpse of his stunningly white teeth, "I even had the roses and everything."

_Dagger stood outside the wooden door, his hand poised and positioned, ready to knock, but somehow, he felt that he couldn't do it. He breathed in and out deeply; trying to sooth his frazzled nerves, before he shook his head roughly. _

_He had to do it, he had to tell her how much he needed her, how much he missed her … how much he loved her._

_She had the right to know. _

_He hammered his knuckles against the wood, and waited… and yet there was no answer. Frowning, he knocked again, a little louder this time. However, to no avail, it was the same; there was no response. _

_He was about to turn around and walk off, but something in his head was telling him to persist. He placed his hand on the handle and pushed it down whilst pushing the door forwards. It creaked on its hinges as it was thrust forward, slowly, inch by inch, portraying to him the view of her room._

_As it swung its last few inches, Dagger cast his eyes quickly over to her bed, where what he saw caused his heart to clench tightly in his chest, his words dissolve in his throat, and a tight tumour to wrap it's way fatally around his lungs, rendering him completely breathless._

_Aimee froze where she was, her arms hooked around the braided boy's neck as she hovered merely centimetres on top of him on the bed. "Shit," she cursed, pushing herself away from Duo and scrambling carelessly off the bed, "Rain," she called as he glared angrily at Duo, hoping to bore a hole through the American boy's head, with his sharp stare. Why was it, he wondered, that every girl fell for him, was it his accent? It was, wasn't it? _

"_Rain," He turned to Aimee, her soft blonde hair messily strewn across her guilty face, and stared at her, deeply. She wasn't worth his time, she really wasn't. He spun around on his heel and made hastily for the door. "Wait … Rain, wait!" she called after him, but it was too late. He had already given her up._

"Oh my God, Dagger," Hilde whispered as he finished, "That's awful."

"It doesn't matter now." He said, the distant look in his eyes, fading quickly as he brought himself back to Earth. "Anyway, you said earlier, that Tiffany claimed that you had to 'date' the boys from the Christmas dance till New Years."

Hilde nodded, not quite understanding where he was taking this.

"Well, considering that the dance is on Christmas Eve and there's less than a week from then till the New Years Eve party, I think you'll be fine. Besides, did Tiffany state what, exactly, she meant by the term 'dating'?" Dagger smirked, dangerously before walking over to her bed and flinging himself onto it. Hilde stared at him, both mesmerized and confused by his actions. How could he just brush off everything they had been talking about so simply?

Frowning, she answered, "_Actually_, she did. The guys aren't allowed to see any other girls in between that time."

Dagger sighed, "Well, we can think about that closer to the time, but as for now," he winked at her before patting the space on the bed beside him, "we'll just work on getting you closer to Maxwell."

Hilde laughed and joined him on the bed, snuggling close to his protective form. "The term's closing in on us fast; we don't have that much time."

"Ahhh," he purred in her ear, "but we'll make it work. You can just flirt your pretty little ass off and I'll manipulate my connections into helping out. Okay?" His breath skimmed across her cheek as he spoke, and Hilde hoped to God that he couldn't hear to raucous pounding of her fast-beating heart, thundering in her chest. She stared at him as he lay next to her, his lethargic eyes heavily lidded as he inhaled deeply and his chest expanding against her with each breath of air.

"Why are you doing this?" she asked, suddenly, causing his eyes to fly open and the sharp hazel green orbs to seek out her own, "Helping me, that is."

Dagger stared at her for a few long moments, seemingly searching her face for answers, before eventually answering.

"For two reasons, I guess." He threw her a crooked smile, "One being that you are my best friend, and I would do almost _anything_ for you…" he cupped her chin in his hand and caressed her cheek gently with his thumb.

Hilde laughed nervously, "I liked the 'almost' part that you added in there," Dagger's mouth quirked slightly at each side, turning his smile into a sheepish grin. "And two being?" she probed, biting her lip.

"_Revenge_." He answered slowly his eyes glistened strangely, as he did so, and Hilde pulled her head back from his to study him curiously.

She had just opened her mouth to tell him how she felt about the last remark, when a loud rapping echoed from her door.

Shaken by the interference, Hilde blinked before pushing herself off the bed and staring, intently at the door.

The rapping continued.

"Are you just going to stare at it all day, or were you planning on using your telepathic powers to open it with your mind?" Dagger inquired, chuckling slightly to himself.

Hilde threw him a dark look before strolling over to the door and recklessly hauling it open.

"_Hilde_," She stared at the visitor, in a semi state of shock and bewilderment, "Thank God you're here, you scared me y'know, disappearing like that, Relena too. Where'd ya go, anyway?"

"D-Duo." She managed to mutter, still staring at the American boy with a sense of awe. How did he look _so_ good_ all_ of the time? It shouldn't be possible … or even legal; it was dangerous to her mental state of health.

"_Maxwell happened."_

Dagger's voice roused her from her daze and she shook her head, violently.

"Umm, yeah, sorry about that, I was just, really, really cold. You know what I mean." She replied, Dagger's voice still rolling over in her mind.

Duo frowned at her, looking somewhat concerned, he leant forward slightly, his intense cobalt blue eyes capturing hers and as they did so, she felt as though she was losing herself in the deep enticing sea of blue flames. "You okay?" He peered past her shoulder, and catching sight of Dagger, sprawled casually on her bed, he grimaced. "_Oh_ … oh right. It seems I've come at an inconvenient time, I'll uh, call back later." He ran his long tan, muscular fingers through his hair, brushing stray strands of chestnut brown from his face, before turning, and walking away.

Hilde watched him until he was out of view, before hesitantly closing the door and leaning against the back for support. How could he do that? Blow her mind and cause her to become some delirious_, lovesick_ girl with just a glance of those dazzling eyes?

Dagger scoffed in the background.

"Okay, so maybe the '_not _falling in love' part of the deal may be a _little_ tricky." Hilde stared at him, shocked by his words; she could see the abhorrence of Duo clearly on his face, and his disgust at her actions from his screwed up nose, glaring eyes, and curled lip.

"I'm_ not_ in love with him." She protested. "He just … surprised me, that's all."

"_Sure_."

-x- -x- -x-

Her mind was frazzled, and with the current day's events, it was no wonder. Considering the fact that she had just moved into the same common area as one of her most despised students, had then continued to spend a day with him, duelling, on the same team, for the ambiguous victory of a snow war and had lost Hilde somewhere along the way.

Her common room door slammed raucously shut behind her and she involuntarily winced, wondering whether Heero had ventured back to his dormitory yet.

Not that it really mattered. She had practically spent a whole day with the brooding brunette, and frankly, anymore time spent in his presence and she would be ready to- _oh my._ Oh. My…

Heero emerged from his en suite, a vast cloud of white airy particles surrounding him in a steamy haze as he came to lounge, coolly against the doorframe. A mere navy towel was slung low around his hips, exposing to her the chiselled and dominantly masculine form of his muscular chest and well-defined arms. Da Vinci's Michelangelo didn't even do him justice. This guy was the new Adonis.

Pity he had such a bad personality beneath all that beauty.

He tilted his head, so as to lean it against the door, and Relena quickly broke from her stupor, to stubbornly frown at her roommate.

"What do you think you're doing?" she demanded, hotly, trying, and failing not to pay attention to the way that the steam condensed against his already shimmering, wet skin and slipped down his tanned body, catching the light with a magnificent glimmer as they danced down.

An indistinct smirk tugged at his lips as he studied her carefully. "I could ask you the same question."

Relena could feel her face heating up as the blood rushed to her head, and pounded loudly in her ears. He knew that she had been staring … and knowing the cocky, arrogant git, he was going to hold it against her in true Yuy fashion.

"As a matter of fact," Relena declared, straightening her shoulders to regain her composure, "I just arrived. So if you're thinking that I've been standing out here for the last … I don't know, half hour or so, just to-" _stare at your impeccable body_, "umm … see you. Then you're very wrong."

Heero chuckled lightly, shaking his full head of unruly dark hair and causing miniature droplets to fall to the cold tiles below. Relena stared at him. Had he just laughed … and was he … was he_ smiling_? Like not … smirking … _smiling_.

Oh, god, the world as she knew it, was coming to an end. Next thing she'd know, she'd be falling in love with the frustrating boy.

Hah. _So _not happening anytime soon.

"What's wrong with you?" she asked, precariously, rising her head slightly to study him closer.

He shrugged indifferently, his piercing blue eyes boring holes into her soul. "Nothing that I know of." Relena shuddered and hastily averted her eyes. The intensity of his stare was tormenting her, and the bizarre thing was … she could see no sign of contempt in those audacious Prussian orbs. Not that she was ever good at reading the usually stoic boy, but generally, he had seemed not to care enough to hide that one emotion. Hatred, bête-noir … detestation, whatever you wanted to call it. It was an emotion that anyone would be able to pinpoint, unless of course, it wasn't actually there.

A small frown graced her face as she peered at him from behind stray strands of honey blonde. Maybe, if it was possible, there was some kind of connection forming between them, which, frankly, wouldn't be a particularly bad thing, not if it give her some kind of a relationship to work on. For the bet that is, of course.

He brushed past her, his hand slinging another towel around his neck as he moved and several droplets from his dishevelled hair dropping onto her shoulders.

Relena inhaled deeply, watching him disappear into his room, and as she did so, suddenly wished that she hadn't, for the alluring masculine scent of cologne was much too powerful for her liking.

Grimacing, the bewildered head girl slipped into her own bathroom, and after stripping off her – many – layers of clothing, she slipped into the shower, hoping to wash away her imbecilic girlishness.

She sighed as many beads of pressurised water pounded heavily against her aching flesh, soothing her aching muscles and enabling her to fully relax, for the first time that day.

Nowadays, she seemed to be permanently tensed. Or perhaps, it was only because she was constantly around Heero.

Hormones, Relena mused silently, she'd be better off without them.

-x- -x- -x-

The door closed quickly behind him as he entered the dark room, and not caring to switch on the lights, he made his way over to the dresser. He picked out a few select items and dressed swiftly before sinking into his vacant double bed.

Heero ran his hands through his hair, and growled in frustration. What the hell was wrong with him? Had he eventually reached the point of insanity? Because this was the only valid reason that he could come up with for his outlandish behaviour. He trailed his fingers down his face and finally clamped them over his jaw. What was going on with his body anyway and why was he experiencing these mysterious new emotions? He was definitely feeling something different than he had any time before … so why now? Why around _her_.

It wasn't like he hadn't been interested in girls before, because he had; there was the whole thing with Harley Alexander and Shannon Nichols, they had been quite sustainable relationships, with two very beautiful girls. And of course, his apparent crush – or whatever they called that weird, scary feeling – on Sylvia Noventa. Lust, isn't that what those feelings were described as? An intense or unrestrained sexual craving.

However, that wasn't it. Not this time. It was different, it was more … it was_ wrong_.

He grimaced, it was all completely _wrong_. Relena Darlian … _Darlian_, the prudish head girl who was entirely untouchable to all of the male species, who had nauseatingly flawless grades since year eight and who strived for perfection in all ways possible. That was a girl who he most certainly didn't want to get involved with.

Therefore, the eccentric feelings that he was undergoing … were non-existent. He was clearly over-reacting.

His sharp eyes had long adjusted to the thick, heavy darkness in the room, and he swept them casually around, taking in the standard and impersonal furnishings. They landed, eventually, on the large burnished window on the opposite side of the room and he studied the view with a mild interest. Even in the darkness, he could make out the blinding whiteness of the pure snow outside, layering thickly across the landscape and adorning everything in sight with its frosted ice.

The wind howled suddenly, as it attempted to gain entrance to the room through the crevices of the window, and broke the steady silence of the room with an echoing wail.

A coarse waft of icy air stole into the room and caressed his bare arms and legs with chilled, biting fingers, which scratched carelessly at his skin. However, Heero was indifferent to the sudden drop of temperature in his body, and throwing himself down onto the soft mattress of his bed, he came to a conclusion.

He didn't feel_ anything_ for Darlian, nothing at all.

Not even contempt.

* * *

Oooohhh eeeee. I'm not _that_ late today, now, am I? Aren't you proud of me? I think I deserve and uber big hug for all of the hard work that I put into finishing this. Hee hee. 

**Anyways … what did you think of this chapter?**

**Are you enjoying the story so far?**

**Do you think that the girls will win the bet?**

That's just three of the many questions that I've been absolutely dying to ask you guys. Please answer … they're just for fun, really … and of course … to inflate my ego (tee hee … not really. But I'm in a funny mood tonight.)

Ohmygasp. It's Christmas eve. I hope you guys have a ROCKIN' CHRISTMASSS! And a booming new year!

You can see this chapter as an early-ish Christmas present. (smiles)

Oh … and … aren't Duo and Heero just so scrumptious? If I was a cannibal (which I'm most certainly not) I would totally have them for dinner. In fact, that sounds weird. Really weird. So just like scrap that.

**Love**

**xxx**

P.s. Any questions? Ask them in reviews and I'll be sure to get back to you. Leave your email address or if you've an account, I'll message you back. Either way, I'll answer them, unless of course, they are plot spoilers and in that case I have to say… no, no, no … patience is a virtue. Let's keep it that way.


	9. Planting Seeds of Scepticism

**Wanna Bet?**

**Chapter nine: Planting Seeds of Scepticism**

The sun was shining vividly, casting a warm, golden glow onto her body as she sat on the sturdy wooden bleachers, waiting for the time when the coach would call her onto the pitch. She smiled blissfully; as she avidly watched her fellow students dash and dodge past each other, most heading in one main direction, towards the black and white, patched football, and the rest dispersing on the field, in order to free themselves from their markers.

In her daze she was unaware of anything else that was going on around her, in fact, in a way, she almost seemed isolated in her own deliriously content world.

"Hey there," a suave voice suddenly interrupted her segregation, and she whirled around, to find herself staring into a pair of sparkling cobalt blue eyes. "How ya doing?"

Hilde smiled as she watched the braided boy place himself onto the bench beside her, grinning happily, and almost, she mused silently, maniacally.

"Fine thanks and you?"

"Awesome." He replied, calmly, his dominant American accent overriding whatever English one he had picked up in his time here. He nodded his head and smiled, lopsidedly before turning to watch the game.

After a while of tranquil silence and watching the football game grow more intense, Duo turned to her, giving her a strange glance before turning away again.

"What?" Hilde asked in an almost bored manner, not moving her eyes from the bibbed students on the grassy field.

"Nothing," Hilde noticed that he was grinning again from the corner of her eye, but instead decided to focus on the fact that the coach was sending payers off the pitch.

'Call me on, call me on, please call me on …'

"No really," she pressed, "tell me."

Duo sighed, "It's just about the Christmas dance."

A spark of hope ignited within her chest, and before she could extinguish it, Duo had flashed a vibrant grin, causing the tiny flame to combust riotously, preparing to explode. "What about it?" she asked, feeling nervous now.

"Well … I was wondering whether …" he paused, frowning slightly before staring off into the distance.

"Maxwell!" The coach hollered from the pitch, "Get your ass up here now, I need you on attack!"

Hilde bit her lip, still staring at the braided boy, apprehensively, when she felt something brush past her shoulder.

"Duo…" Aimee sidled up to him, wrapping her arms firmly around Duo's waist before planting her painted lips onto his cheek.

"Aimee, babe. I was just thinking about you," Duo cooed, smiling dopily. Hilde frowned, feeling that something wasn't quite right in the scene.

"Really?"

"Yeah … I just wanted to check something; we're going to the dance together, right?" Duo questioned, staring at her profoundly.

"Of course, Duey, we couldn't have it any other way now, could we?"

Duo grinned and shook his head. "Nope, not any other way." His eyes skittered over to Hilde's, locking for a second before he turned his head away.

She blinked rapidly, feeling dizzy as she watched the football pitch miraculously transform into one of the school corridors. Suddenly, people were hastily scurrying past, bumping into her and brushing past, yet, Duo and Aimee were still in front of her, acting sickeningly in love and causing the hope in her chest vanish instantly, leaving behind it a sharp, suffocating pain.

"Hilde, what's wrong?" Aimee asked, somewhat mockingly, tossing her blonde locks over her shoulder.

"You know," Duo chuckled, his bright grin turning into a daunting sneer, "I think she was expecting me to ask her to the dance."

Aimee laughed, maliciously, "Oh sweetie … you didn't really think that, _did you_?"

Hilde was breathing deeply now, the pain in her chest becoming bindingly tight with each new breath. The people surrounding her had stopped scurrying about and now gathered around her, jeering and laughing tauntingly, forming a tight ring around her, enclosing her from the outside world.

"What, are you in _love _with him or something?" Aimee teased, wrapping her arm even tighter around the derisive Duo's waist.

"Now Hilde," Tiffany jumped into the centre of the crowd, making her way towards her, smirking callously in cruel amusement. A true schadenfreude if there ever was one, "That would be a direct violation of the rules now … wouldn't it? I'll take it that you're forfeiting then, huh?"

She was feeling smothered by the mockingly cruel laughter emerging from the crowds, the room was becoming unbearably hot and she tugged at the neck of her polo shirt awkwardly. She shifted uncomfortably, underneath the unwavering stares that were focused so heavily upon her and wanted nothing more than to run away.

"Too _bad_," Lani goaded, also stepping into the scene, "that's a_ lot _of money to lose." She shook her head slowly before shrugging.

"That's what you get," Tiffany sang in a mocking voice, "for breaking the rules."

Hilde looked up at Duo, and he smirked down at her, condescendingly. "Why Hilde, you really shouldn't have. I mean, giving up all of that money for me. I'm flattered, honestly, but did you really think that a guy like _me_," he pointed his index finger at himself, "would actually fall for a girl like _you_?" he gestured to her with the same finger, before bursting into fits of laughter. "That's priceless."

As if on cue, the crowds around them joined in with laughter and Hilde spun around to watch them all, each hazy faceless body pointing at her with accusing fingers, laughing and laughing … she continued to spin; around and around as a nauseating feeling rose in her chest. Her breaths were tight and constricted, becoming short and uneven as sobs broke out in her throat. She felt as though she were shrinking, growing smaller and smaller with each burst if laughter and each contemptuous jeer.

"You thought he'd fall for you?"

"_Please_ …"

"As if …"

"I think you need a reality check,_ little_ girl."

"Duo's _way _out of you league."

By now, Duo and Aimee were towering above her. She was an insignificant little insect compared to them, a worthless unimportant pest for them to step upon, to squish, to eliminate from their lives and there was nothing that she could do about it.

"You shouldn't have even bothered, Hilde," Aimee said, almost sympathetically, clicking her tongue, "you should have just given up. You had no chance of winning him … no chance at all."

"He's too good for a little bug like you."

"… _too good_ …"

Duo smiled. His mesmerizing blue eyes sparkling with malice, "They're right you know. I _am_ too good for you."

He then raised his foot from the ground, his large, dominating Etnie hovering just over her head, ready to crash down on her … and break her to pieces.

--

Hilde bolted upright, her eyes snapping open to the stifling darkness of the room, her breaths ragged and sharp as her chest heaved rapidly in and out. She wriggled her legs out of the tangled bed sheets and threw them over the edge of the bed, exhaling deeply and sinking her head into her hands. She could feel the beads of sweat, layered upon her forehead as her hands swept across her head.

'It was only a bad dream, Hilde … only a dream.' But even still, she couldn't help thinking about it. Was this a sign … a warning? Was this her brain giving her some sort of hindsight into the future?

Maybe she _was_ getting too involved with Duo, maybe that was a dangerous path to take, one that would ultimately, lead to her destruction.

She sighed. 'I need to form a plan … I need to ensure that no matter what happens, there's no way that I'm going to get hurt.' She bit down on her lip, so hard that she was sure that she would soon draw blood. 'I need to make sure that I don't grow too attached, and yet am still close enough to him to win the bet."

She shivered, starting to feel the cold nights chill cooling her body, and tucked herself back under the covers. She would think about it in the morning, and Dagger would help her of course … he was always there for her, to help her through hard times and catch her when she fell.

She snuggled deeply into the covers … yes, he was her solid rock … her support … he was sturdy and strong and he was_ always_ there for her.

-x- -x- -x-

"Morning," Relena greeted brightly as Heero emerged from his room, a large baggy sweater pulled over his upper torso and his hair ruffled and sticking out at all angles from his head. She smiled, pursing her lips slightly to muffle her giggles. He looked slightly rough, as though he hadn't received much sleep and had stayed up tossing and turning in the night.

He grunted in return before settling down at the island counter, perching himself upon one of the stools and sinking his head into his arms.

"Why are you so tired?" She asked, inquisitively.

"Why are you so chipper?" He retorted, lifting his head to stare at her as she fidgeted with the settings on the toaster.

She shrugged, "I don't know. Maybe because Christmas is approaching quickly, and I'm rather excited about the fact that my parents have actually permitted me to stay for the holidays this year or maybe it's because they elect the head chairperson for the Christmas ball committee today." She grabbed a few slices of bread, stuffing them into the toaster and pressing down the lever, "But I guess it's a bit of both, really. Do you want some toast?"

Heero shook his head, and Relena turned around, leaning her back against the counter and studying Heero curiously, "Aren't you going to answer my question?"

"What quest-" he started, and then, as it dawned upon him, he groaned tiredly, "I didn't sleep well last night, is all."

Relena nodded sympathetically. "Okay, well," she glanced around the room, "Would you like some coffee?"

Heero smiled, genuinely, and Relena moved towards the machine, her heart thumping in her chest.

"You should smile more often."

"Hmm?"

Relena's eyes widened and she thanked God that she wasn't facing him, for she knew that she would undoubtedly be morphing a very unattractive shade of red. 'Did I say that out loud?'

"Umm … well … I just said that you should smile more often. I mean, sincerely smile, none of that smirking business that you seem to have perfected."

She turned towards him, noting that his eyebrows were raised, amusedly.

"Why?" He asked.

"Because, well … it suits you better."

There was a strange silence between them, and then the click of the coffee machine, signalling to them that the coffee was ready.

Relena pushed the mug into his hands before grabbing the paper from the counter top, and studying it with a passionate concentration, trying to give herself something to do.

"So do you reckon the school will have anything to say about the mess that was made yesterday?" she asked, trying to ease the thick tension in the room. "I mean, when I came in last night, there was slush everywhere … it was all over the corridors, melting into carpets – which were already stained with muddy footprints – and I think I even seen some water dripping from the ceilings in a few places."

She glanced up from the paper, her breath catching in her throat at the intensity of Heero's stare; his dark Prussian blues trained intently onto hers. He set his mug down on the counter, and Relena noticed that he was already starting to look more awake.

"They probably will. And I imagine that the Mrs Neill will have something to say to us, considering that we're the head students and all." Mrs Neill was the vice principle of Harrison College, and much less easy-going than Dr. Steiner. She was the one who dealt with all of the minor disciplinary procedures in the school, and her stern punishment methods had the majority of the junior year students cowering in her presence.

"Oh God."

An unexpected heavy hammering at their common room door had both of their attentions averted towards it. Heero moaned, grimacing from the noise before reluctantly slipping out of his chair and sauntering towards the door, his hand clasped over his head.

As soon as he'd unlocked it, the door swung open hastily, almost knocking the oblivious boy off his feet.

"Duo," Heero growled, irritated, "What the hell's wrong with you?"

Duo scowled at Heero, looking somewhat impatient, "Dude, you were meant to meet me at the locker room _twenty minutes _ago!" He looked his friend up and down and then stepped back, his shoulder's drooping and his jaw dropping, agape. "Why aren't you ready?"

Heero blinked, unfocused, before shrugging, "What for?" He asked, nonchalantly.

"The tryouts! For the inter-schools Rugby cup!" Duo ran a hand down his face, anxiously, and Relena peered over at them from her position at the counter, curious as to what was going on.

"MAN! We've been working towards this all year; how the hell could you forget?"

"_Shit_, the tryouts …" Heero cursed, his eyes flickering towards Relena before jumping back to Duo. "Two minutes." He told Duo, before dashing back to his room, the door slamming shut behind him, and wavering on its hinges.

Duo groaned, muttering incoherently under his breath before walking into the room, closing the door behind him, and sinking into the armchair that was closest to the door as he dropped his kitbag onto the floor with a heavy 'thud'. He leant his head back against the headrest and closed his eyes, still muttering under his breath with an irate scowl plastered upon his handsome, tanned face.

Relena cocked her head to the side, watching the boy interestedly and concluding the fact that he truly _wasn't_ aware of her presence. She cleared her throat, hesitantly.

Duo started, jumping forward in the chair as his eyes opened widely, scanning swiftly across the room before falling upon her. He heaved a sigh of relief, the muscles in his body easing as he sunk back into the chair's cushion.

"Hey there, sorry, I didn't realize I wasn't alone," He grinned, sheepishly and jerked his head towards Heero's door, "I could kill him-"

'Me too,' Relena agreed, silently.

"-I swear … if we miss these trials …" His fists clenched, and then unclenched as he exhaled, exaggeratedly, "I've worked so hard for this, ya know … we both have. It's the one thing that really keeps me going throughout the year, and this year, we've even got scouts coming over and monitoring our matches. It's like a dream come true, really, the chance of a lifetime." He sighed, and Relena leant forward, listening carefully, "If we make it to the trials on time, it's a sure thing that we'll get onto the team; we're the two top players, you see, and Coach says that we're really talented … and that we could go far." His eyes glazed over as he stared at the walls, dazedly. "Really far."

Relena wasn't sure whether or not he was talking to her at this point, but she sat silently, not wanting to disturb him.

The door slammed again and Heero ran towards Duo, kicking the American boy's shins and waking him from his daze before turning back to Relena, and nodding his head at her, "Thanks for the coffee, I'll see you later."

"Yeah, nice to meet ya, head girl!" Duo winked, and Heero smacked him across the back of the head, causing him to wince and dart out of the room.

Relena watched the door close behind them and sat, motionless, staring at the door for a few moments longer, wondering whether it was just her imagination, or was Heero starting to lose his cool exterior?

-x- -x- -x-

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!

Hilde groaned and twisted over onto her side, wrenching the covers up over her head as she did so, not wishing to rouse from her sleep.

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BE- SLAM! SLAM!SLAM!

She smiled and groggily murmured, "Thank God," before rolling over the other way.

"ARGH!"

Hilde stirred, but as soon as she attempted to open her eyes, she found herself being shoved by some unknown force, off the bed, and landing with a hard thump on the wooden floors beneath her.

She then heard a sequence of horrified yells, which were soon subsided, with a heavy sigh of relief. Groaning, she opened her eyes to see Dagger peering down at her from the bed with a confused and yet eased expression.

"You're not naked." He breathed huskily, shaking his head. Hilde frowned at his comment and looked down at herself.

"Why would I be?"

Dagger lifted his eyebrows and stared down at her.

"Huh?" Hilde asked, rubbing her eyes sleepily, "Oh" her eyes widened, "You thought that we had … No."

Dagger laughed, "Yeah, I can see that now. It's just a bit shocking waking up and seeing you lying there, right in front of me."

"I look that bad, huh?" she sat up, stretching her arms above her head and yawning drowsily.

"No," Dagger shook his head ruefully, his hair falling across his face, "no, you look beautiful."

Hilde glanced up at him, catching the sincerity in his tone. His golden blonde hair was dishevelled, his hazel eyes heavily lidded from exhaustion, and yet somehow, he was still breathtaking, in all ways possible.

She eventually tore her eyes away. She couldn't think about him like that … she shouldn't.

"How did I end up staying here anyway?" Hilde inquired, avoiding his comment and running a hand through her locks in an attempt to flatten her unkempt hair.

Dagger looked thoughtful for a few moments; his lethargic gaze directed steadily towards his window before he answered, "I'm not sure," he faltered, "The last thing that I remember was you leaning against me on the bed and thinking of how perfect we felt together."

Hilde could feel her face reddening, as a heated blush rushed to her face. She stared at him, waiting for his roguish grin to appear on his face, and his ludicrously infectious laugh to explode from his soft lips … but they never came, his face remained serious as he stared down at her from the bed, his eyes sharp and pinning, in a slightly unnerving manner.

Hilde bit her lip, unsurely, a trait that was fast becoming a bad habit.

"Listen, never mind that," Dagger said, smiling ever so lightly as he brushed the topic astray, "I've got to get down to practice; we have trials for the team today." Sliding off the bed, he knelt down closely beside her, his fingers brushing a few strands of dark hair away from her face, "You can sleep for a bit longer, but make sure you're out of here by twelve, that's when Avery, my dorm mate gets back from his vacation." With that said he stood up, his eyes slowly drifting away from hers before he walked over to his dresser, pulled upon the doors and grabbed his kitbag. "Later." He called as he walked out, leaving Hilde sitting in the middle of his room, curled up on the ground, and staring, mystified and bewildered at the back of the door.

-x- -x- -x-

"All right, girlies, listen up," Coach Phillips hollered from the front of the locker rooms, a few boys mumbled indignantly at his insult, but the majority of them were well used to it by now and remained silent, "Today, as you all know, is the day that I have designated for the trials of the official Harrison College Rugby team. I will choose the best, and _only_ the best for my team, so I want you sissies to do your best out on the pitch, you hear me?"

There were a few murmurs of "Yes Coach" echoing throughout the small, damp room.

"Right well, get changed and be out on the field in -"

BANG!

The locker room door flew open haphazardly, slamming off the end locker and rattling noisily as a flustered Duo Maxwell appeared in the doorframe, grinning manically.

"Alright, we made it on time."

Heero emerged from the background to stand beside him, his arms crossed casually across his chest and his eyes sweeping alertly over the room, before settling airily on the coach, who growled irately.

"Maxwell," he barked, "Yuy! What the hell do you two think you're playing at?"

Duo grinned, "Coach, hey! Sorry we're late we-"

"Save it for someone who cares, Maxwell. Now get in line, quickly!" The coach ordered, and Duo and Heero both moved into the room, settling down beside their lockers. "I want all of you changed and out on the field in five." He finished, glaring, irritated, at Heero and Duo, before leaving the room.

Out on the pitch, the boys, in their green and white rugby kits shivered against the cold winds as they sat, side by side at the edge of the field, listening alertly to the rumbling voice of their coach.

"On a team, you have to learn to work ably with one another. This is a vital attribute of any boy who is going to be on my team, so to test this, I'm going to pair you up and see just how well you guys can cope with working together."

Duo turned to Heero, rolling his eyes, "This should be easy enough." Heero blinked, ignoring his friend.

They listened as the coach began to pair off students, and send them off onto the field to practice techniques, as their teeth chattered noisily in their mouths.

"Yuy and Jamison," Coach Phillips bellowed out, and Heero stood, looking across the bench to see Landon Jamison rising at the other side. He nodded in silent agreement, and they left for the field.

"Maxwell, you go with Stryker," Duo's jaw dropped open, and he stared at his coach in astonishment, completely immobile. "NOW, Maxwell!"

Duo rose from the bench and sauntered slowly towards Dagger who was scowling maliciously at him, his hazel eyes dark and incensed.

"Hey," Duo greeted, politely, only to be met with a furious glare, "Guess we should get this over with."

Dagger scoffed and grabbing one of the oval shaped rugby balls from the crate, jogged out onto the field. Duo reluctantly followed the blonde haired boy.

Dagger immediately tossed him the ball as soon as he had caught up and Duo had to sprint to catch it.

"What's your problem, Stryker?" Duo barked, tossing his hair out of his eyes, and throwing the ball back.

"What do you think?" Dagger asked as he caught the ball easily with one hand, "You." He thrust it back to Duo, with so much force that it sent Duo backwards a few steps.

"What the hell did I do?"

"Everything."

Duo sighed. That was helpful, how was he to know why this guy held such a firm grudge against him? As far as he could recall, he hadn't done anything to instigate such malice.

"TEAM WORK!" The coach hollered at them from the sidelines, "I don't see any team work over there!"

Dagger grimaced, "Just stay away from her, Maxwell. Stop playing games."

Duo stared at his partner, the ball tucked neatly underneath his arm, "Who?" he asked, frowning in confusion.

"_Hilde_, you idiot. I mean it, just leave her be."

Duo shook his head and answered, silently, 'I'm afraid I can't do that.'

* * *

**A/N** - Thanks so much for all the reviews. They were greatly appreciated! I'm so busy at the minute, so I barely ever get time to write, sorry about that. I think you guys will really like what I've got planned for the next chapter. And yay … the Christmas dance is approaching! That should be an exciting event hehe, I can't wait till I get to write that. 


	10. Manipulation and Other Forms of Deceptio

**Wanna Bet?**

**Chapter ten: Manipulation and Other Forms of Deception**

She was out of Dagger's room long before noon. She didn't even want to think of how she'd explain her presence in Rain's bed to his roommate, honestly, the thought of the situation alone made her shudder. The word would be spread around the school within an hour and soon, the rumours would be wild and out of control. That's what the students in her school were like, the boys just as bad as the girls, even Hilde was guilty of some mild gossip.

She found herself drifting through barren corridors, aimlessly wandering and following her feet wherever they took her. Her mind coasted to thoughts of the ridiculous bet that she was currently participating in, and she found herself questioning why she had even persuaded Relena into agreeing to the terms. In the end, it was inevitable that people would be hurt, hearts would be broken, and tears would be shed. She shook her head and looked up, suddenly finding herself staring at a dark wooden door, adorned with the brazened gold numbers five-one-two. Hilde sighed, and was about to turn and walk away from the strange room when the door unexpectedly swung open, and in shock, she stumbled backwards, colliding with the corridor wall.

"Glad to see the sight of me still knocks your breath away."

Hilde scoffed resentfully, before looking up to greet the arrogant jerk in front of her. Her breath caught in her throat at the sight.

"Were you looking for me?" Duo asked, taking a few steps forward and almost completely closing the distance between them. His glistening cobalt blue eyes were pinned directly to hers as he buttoned up his shirt, which was still partly open, leaving his rippling chest free to her bewildered eyes. "Hilde?"

"Umm, no actually, I wasn't." Duo frowned and she breathed in deeply, trying to ignore the strong scent of aftershave burning her lungs with desire and the strong impulsive urge to shove the boy back into his room and kiss him relentlessly. But no, she had to keep in control, once she let her emotions take over, she was dead meat.

"Okay, so what. Exactly, are you doing outside my room, Schbeiker?" He ran a hand through his glossy brown hair before stepping backwards and staring at her, confused. "I haven't gained myself another lust-filled stalker, right?" He asked, grinning lopsidedly before winking, mischievously at her.

Hilde laughed, awkwardly, and tried to compose herself. "Keep dreaming, Maxwell. I was just taking a walk."

"To my bedroom?" His eyebrow arched prestigiously and his eyes grew darker as Hilde's heart began to thud against her ribcage.

'Get a hold of yourself,' her mind was screaming.

Duo shook his head curtly, brushing the topic astray, "Never mind that. I'm going out to the tennis courts, care to join me?" He asked, and noting Hilde's doubtful expression, continued, "Come on, it'll be fun. Please?"

He was giving her the puppy-dog eyes. She couldn't believe this, it was totally unfair, all she wanted to do was go back to her room and mull over how she was going to get through the trying tortures of this bet, and here she was, with the boy whom her bet revolved around, being pressured into a sport which she held no interest in, whatsoever.

"But I can't-"

"Of course you can." Duo retorted in his suave voice, lowering his head so that he was equal with her, "You have great aim."

"No that was a fluke, and besides, I _wasn't_ aiming for your head, I swear to God-"

"Ahh save it, Schbeiker," Duo cut through her sentence once again, and closing the door behind him, he turned around to her and clasped his strong, muscular hand around her wrist. Hilde felt a strong compulsion to pull away from him - his touch was electrifying … dangerous – but he wouldn't have it, his hand only tightened further around hers as he started to tug her down the hall. "And anyways, you know what they say."

"What would that be?" Hilde asked, stumbling over her feet as she tried to keep up with Duo's fast pace.

Duo heaved his sports bag back onto his shoulder as the strap began to slide down his arm, causing his arm to collide with Hilde's, and more rousing sparks to dance energetically throughout her body. She suppressed a groan as Duo stated, "Practice makes perfect."

She couldn't help it, she groaned as she fell into step beside the American boy. Duo laughed and threw his arm across her shoulders. "Don't worry babe, it'll be fun… plus I'll be there, so just how bad could it be?"

"That's the problem." Hilde sulked, jokingly.

Duo laughed again and ruffled her hair with his hand. Hilde batted at his hand with hers, before breaking into a fit of laughter.

"Point taken," Duo chuckled, "But you're stuck with me now."

-x- -x- -x-

As the laughing couple rounded the corner of the corridor, Lani gasped silently and pressed herself tightly up against the cold wall, clutching her books firmly to her chest.

She watched avidly as they strolled in the opposite direction, the boy's arm thrown casually around the girls shoulder. Lani's eyes narrowed at Hilde's retreating back as she strolled away in the opposite direction. How was it possible that Hilde had the upper hand in this bet? How was it possible that they were _losing_? She exhaled sharply, frustrated anger rising up through her body and filling her mind with extravagant retributions.

Tossing her bleached blonde hair over her shoulder, she fished her cell phone from her bag and flipped it open, pressing it tightly to her ear.

After three rings, the call connected, "Hello?"

"Tiffany!" Lani exclaimed, trying to keep her breaths at a regular rhythm.

"Lani? What's up? Is something wrong?"

"Yeah. We've got a _major_ problem. Hilde and Duo are … well … acting like a couple, basically."

A brusque intake of breath resounded from the other side, "What do you mean?" Tiffany cried, "How could they be acting like a couple? Duo's with _Aimee_! I didn't even think he knew Hilde existed!"

"Well," Lani started, "He does, and it looks like she's in the lead of this little wager of ours. Tiff, you know we can't have her winning, it may cause a _major _downfall to our popularity status, and that's a big-"

"No, no. I _know_," Tiffany finished. "We need to get back at her somehow, the sneaky little worm."

"We need _major_ damage control."

"Stop saying 'major', you bimbo. Who do you think you are? An American sitcom actress?" Tiffany demanded, vehemently.

Lani huffed, indignantly, "I never said I was!" she whined.

"Whatever." The line went silent for a few seconds, and Lani could hear Tiffany's irritated breaths, "Listen, I've got an idea, get back here quickly, we have to pay Aimee Wright a nice little visit." Tiffany sniggered maliciously for a few seconds before the line went dead, and the resonant humming sound that emerged from it told Lani that she needed to hang up.

Lani stared carefully at the phone in her hand, wondering what Tiffany had up her sleeve this time. Tucking her phone back into her pocket, she paced quickly towards her dorm room, thanking God for the umpteenth time, that she_ wasn't_ Hilde Schbeiker.

-x- -x- -x-

"I don't know what to do, Dorothy, he's just so … obtuse!" Relena paced around her friend's room, her feet scuffing against the worn carpet underneath her feet as she walked back and forth. "It's never going to work, I mean, there's really only one part of the task that I would be able to accomplish, and that's not falling in love with the jerk." Frustration was building up in her chest, along with a twisted state of irritation. She couldn't stand not being able to complete something. To her, everything was a challenge that she aimed to defy.

"_Maybe_," Dorothy started, swiping a brush dripping with red nail polish along her fingernail, before dipping it back into the container, "You could actually pay some attention to him, and stop avoiding him so obstinately. Really, Relena, your approach to this whole matter really is quite pathetic. No wonder you've never had a boy before."

Relena stopped dead in her tracks, glaring at the oblivious young blonde curled up on her mattress, and scoffed in indignation, "I've had boyfriends before, what about Connor Hutchinson?"

Dorothy snorted and looked up from her nails to meet the intense cerulean blues pinning her to the bed, "Oh, you're being serious?"

"Of course I am. What's wrong with Connor?"

Dorothy swallowed her laughter, and repositioned herself on the bed, "What's wrong with Connor?" she mimicked. "Nothing. Nothing at _all_. Except for the fact that you could hardly call that dating, Relena darling." She smiled at her friend, sympathetically, before blowing briskly on her glossy crimson nails.

"You should really take that stuff off, Dorothy, you know the school rules."

"Whatever, do you think I really care?" she whisked her platinum blonde hair away from her eyes, "Anyway, even if we do count Connor, you really don't have any experience with this kind of stuff, do you?"

Relena turned her head away, feeling impatience bubble away in her system, threatening to overflow and force her to cause her friend some serious bodily harm. "I guess not."

"Precisely!" Dorothy beamed, "And that's where I come in."

Relena rolled her eyes, "Oh _please_." She stared at Dorothy, "How can you break through Heero's blocking emotional barriers? No one can do that, it's unfeasible."

"Even still, I wasn't talking about helping him. I was talking about helping _you_."

Relena felt a rising fear rush through her body, "What do you mean by that?"

"Oh not much, just helping you with the basics. You know, a complete makeover, teaching you how to act around boys … how to flirt with them so that with a wink of your eye, they're puppy dogs begging in your lap."

Appalled, Relena tried to swallow, but her throat was drier than the Sahara, "Makeover? Flirting? _Dorothy_!" she screamed, ready to tug her hair out, "I think _not_!"

"But Relena-"

"No! Absolutely, completely and utterly not. No, no, no, no, no."

Dorothy sighed reluctantly, "You're such a prude, you know that, right?"

"I don't care, call me whatever you wish. I can do this my own way Dorothy, without acting like a slut."

"That's hardly acting like a slut!" Dorothy tore her eyes away from her nails to glare intensely at the honey-blonde girl, offended. "Whatever, Lena, do it your way then. I mean, you're a pretty girl, you just don't know how to use that to your advantage."

Relena glanced down at her watch, "Look, Dorothy, I have to go, if you really want to help, do me a favour and find out about these rumours of Sylvia and Heero, okay?"

Dorothy's eyes brightened considerably. "Find out the gossip? That sounds easy enough."

Relena laughed airily before leaving the room, grinning, she had a few matters that she had to sort out herself.

-x- -x- -x-

_Thwack! _

The ball glided easily to the other side of the court and Duo raised his arm, his racket poised and ready to strike and his posture calm and at ease. The overconfident jerk.

_Smack!_

It pelted back towards her. An anticipating blast of exhilarating adrenaline coursed through her blood, giving her a sudden surge of energy. The yellowish green ball was nearing with every passing second at a frightening speed. There was no way that she would be able to-

_Thump!_

Duo's eyes widened from the other side of the court as she hit it back towards him at an assailing velocity, there was no way that he could have hit it. Duo ran after it pointlessly, but she scored.

"_Oh my GOD_!" Hilde screamed, bouncing up and down on her toes, "Did you see that? Duo, did you see that?" She beamed at him and Duo found a small grin creeping up onto his face. "I scored … wow. That was so cool! Let's go again, _come on_, slowpoke!"

"Don't get too cocky now, Schbeiker." Duo chuckled. "I have an idea, do you care to make this a little more interesting?"

Hilde raised her head steadily, carefully scrutinising the dark haired boy. He was up to something; even from here, she could see that mischievous glint to his stunning cobalt blue eyes. She should be careful; she probably shouldn't listen to him. Nope. She was going to continue at this … boring pace. "I'm up for anything you are, Maxwell. What you got planned?"

Duo couldn't conceal the large grin that tugged relentlessly at his lips. "Awesome!" He laughed, impishly, "Just a little bet, Hilde … is all."

Hilde's heart dropped in her chest. For some absurd reason, her throat decided to narrow the passageway to her lungs, constricting her breaths to a worryingly uneven rate. Her head began to spin dizzily.

"A … b-bet?" she managed to choke out.

Duo didn't seem to notice her change in attitude, "Yup. A match, you versus me. What do you say? If I win … You err …" He smirked suddenly, and leant lightly against the tennis net. "If I win, you have to come to my dorm for a week."

Hilde's jaw dropped. Seriously … have you ever seen one of those cartoon's were the dude's jaw just unhinges, completely and drops to the floor … just like that. Okay, well, not quite like that, but you get the grip.

"And finish my homework." He finished and Hilde released a breath of relief. "I could do with some help."

"And if I win?" Hilde inquired, staring at Duo inquisitively, trying to calm her raging heart and its ridiculous antics. It was hammering frantically inside her chest, so much that she was sure it would soon explode from her ribcage.

"I'll do anything you want," Duo answered, and then looking thoughtful for a moment, added, "Within reason, of course."

"Damn," Hilde laughed before picking up the tennis ball and chucking it to Duo, "I'm feeling generous, you can serve."

"Whoa, thanks."

He served the ball and Hilde somehow managed to keep reciprocating it back to him, all the while, thinking of what she could get him to do for her if she won. She dreaded to think of what would happen if she lost, after all, she could barely even cope with her own homework.

Five minutes later, she was surprisingly in the lead, with only one more serve to go before the winner was called.

Duo held the ball in his left hand and stared down at it unsurely. He was going lightly on her, of course, but even still, he hadn't anticipated that she would get this far ahead of him. He sighed, knowing that he only had one choice left; he couldn't let her win.

He tossed the ball up into the air and keeping his eyes focused on it as it fell, swung his racket swiftly behind his back with a light whoosh before steadily ramming it against the yellow blur and rocketing it to the other side.

Hah. No way was she winning.

Hilde was still grinning proudly as Duo served the ball back towards her, his tennis whites, which fit nicely around his muscular body, hazing slightly at his rapid movements.

She was _so_ winning.

Before she knew it, the tennis ball was smearing through the air towards her, high and promptly heading towards the far corner of the courts.

_Noooo_, she was doing so well too.

Breathing in rapidly, Hilde twisted and darted backwards, all the while keeping her eyes permanently converged on the ball. They both drew nearer and nearer, and Hilde felt as though she was moving in slow motion as her legs stirred beneath her and the whole world spun by in a vague distortion.

Then, as if somebody had released the freeze button, everything jumped back into motion. The ball hit the green court floor, inside the lines, Duo won, Hilde's ankle proceeded to twist painfully into an awkward position, causing her to trip and due to her unbalance, fall to the ground, landing on her twisted ankle. She cried out in pain, her hand immediately coming to clutch her ankle, which was throbbing with an excruciating pain.

"Hilde!" she heard him call to her in the distance, but the pain was causing a mental block on all of her thoughts and so, she simply curled into a ball, hoping to fade away from it all.

Duo dashed over to her side. He had never thought of tennis as a dangerous sport before, but suddenly, he was beginning to picture it in a different light. He knelt down beside the small raven-haired girl, and brushing a few strands from her face, gazed concernedly towards her. Her face was clenched up in pain and her hands were both firmly knotted around her ankle.

"Shit," he swore breathing in deeply as his eyebrows furrowed together in scrutiny, he attempted to pry one of her hands away, but she groaned and clamped on tighter. "Hilde, how am I supposed to help you if you want let me near it?"

"Duo …" she whimpered, "I'm fine. Just give me a second, and I'll be _fine_."

"No," Duo stated resolutely, trying, once again, to pry her hands away. "I won't. Now move your damned hand so I can get a-"

"Ouch! Don't do that!" Hilde pulled away from him, kicking him in the shin angrily before hoisting herself up against one of the brick walls surrounding the courts.

"Fine, you want me to just leave you then, huh?" Duo stood up, jumping to his feet and shrugged irately, "Fair enough, have it your way. I'm just trying to help!"

"Well there's no need to, I'm _fine_!"

"You bloody girls and your hormones!" Duo growled before turning and storming off, brusquely into the changing rooms, the doors slamming closed behind him.

Hilde bit her lip in frustration and sighed. Pushing herself into a more comfortable position against the wall and then slowly, impelling herself to stand.

"I can't do it!" Hilde jumped, startled by the unexpected presence and fell back to the ground again, breathing in sharply through her clenched teeth.

"You can't do what?" she asked, quietly.

"I can't leave you here. See? That's how nice I am." Duo strode over to her, and looping an arm under hers and another under her legs, he swept her off her feet and pulled her diminutive body close to his.

"Duo!" Hilde cried, "What do you think you're doing? Put me down _this inst_- OUCH!" She yelled as he thrust his arms up jerkily, causing her whole body to shift in his arms, "What was _that_ for?"

"Quit complaining, and you're wriggling too much, if you keep that up, I'm going to drop you."

"Willingly?" she asked, shooting him a withering look.

"Maybe," Duo answered, a small smile gracing his face, before he shifted her in his arms again, "Hey, _stop_ that!"

"Well then, you stop talking." She did; she fell silent in his arms as he made his way, as quickly as he could, towards the main building.

They made it eventually to the medical room, and Hilde sighed as Duo set her down on one of the chairs before going off to find a nurse.

Her heart was still racing at the close proximity that she had been in with Duo. She felt her cheeks burning as she recalled just how rude she'd been to him, but honestly, it was all in self-preservation. She hadn't wanted her so close to him. Around that guy, she seemed to lose all self-control, and it just wouldn't do, and the fact that he was being so nice didn't help either. It frustrated her, and therefore, she took that malignant frustration out on him. Unfair, yes, but wasn't life?

"Miss Schbeiker?" Hilde glanced up. A young man clad in a white medical coat was frowning down at her with dark caring grey eyes, beside him, Duo stared down at her with focused dark eyes, his dark hair falling across his face and framing his concerned face. "I'm afraid Mrs Kerr isn't available at the moment, but I'm a medical student who's been working with Mrs Kerr for a few weeks now and I'll be able to take a look at your ankle. If that's okay with you?"

Hilde cast a fleeting glance towards Duo, who nodded curtly, before turning back to the student, and nodding, hesitantly, "Sure."

"Great," The medical student beamed, flashing Hilde a bright smile, "Mr Maxwell, if you could just assist her into the room, I can take a look at her."

Hilde sighed and slumped back against the hard plastic of the chair that she was resting on, "You're not going to make this easy for me, are you?" She peered up at the tall boy, the chestnut locks that were resting against his golden skin, glimmering in the hall's lights, and she felt her fingers twitch as she resisted the urge to run her fingers through his silky hair. Trailing her eyes to his face, she was immediately captured by his stunning eyes, the intense deep-sea blueness of his pupils, still sparkling, even though his handsome face was completely detained by shadows.

He slid an arm underneath hers and hauling her to her feet, he supported the majority of her weight as she hobbled into the bright medical room, lit by the strongly luminous white lights, hovering from the ceiling.

"All right Miss Schbeiker, if you could just hop up upon that table over there …"

Hilde followed the student's finger to the mounted table in the centre of the room, covered by a cushioned fabric and sterile paper cloths. Frowning, she turned towards Duo, who grinned before lifting her up upon the table.

"Thank you Duo, you may leave now."

"What?"

Both Duo and Hilde turned to look at each other, before shooting bewildered glances towards the student, who was smiling casually as he untied the white laces of Hilde's trainers.

"Yes, Duo, I would like you to leave the room." The student gently pried the trainer from her foot, and Hilde groaned in pain, "You can wait outside in the hall if you really have to stay, but I'm afraid I cannot permit your presence while I'm tending to your girlfriend here."

Despite the pain that she was undergoing at that moment in time, Hilde felt herself blush deeply, a dark shade of red staining her cheeks, as her face rapidly grew hot.

"She's not my girlfriend," Duo said calmly, as he twisted the handle of the door, "I'll be waiting outside, Hil, give me a shout when you're finished."

Biting her lip, Hilde watched the student as his strong hand gripped around her thin ankle, applying pressure every so often as she squirmed in agony.

His thumb suddenly pressed firmly down, digging deeply into her ankle and Hilde yelled out, her fast reactions causing her to tug her foot away from him.

"Calm down, I was only checking something," the student suddenly looked anxious, as he cast a transitory glance towards the clock, mounted upon one of the painted white walls. Everything about this room was white, "I have to in a few minutes, I've got a lecture at six. Hold on a second and I'll get that bandaged up, it should help take some of the strain off your ankle."

He worked quickly, his hands moving in rapid actions as he wound a woven bandage around her foot.

"Okie dokie, you're free to go now, miss."

"Umm … don't you have anything for the pain?"

The student looked at her, raising his eyebrows before his eyes reluctantly skittered down to her bandaged foot.

"I probably shouldn't, I'm not meant to give pupils medication without signed slips, but …" He started towards the corner of a room, and Hilde watched him carefully as he hauled open a cupboard, "I suppose I could make an exception this time if you promise not to tell anyone." He grabbed a container, and twisted the cap carefully, pouring out its contents, scrutinising them and then hesitantly handing them to Hilde.

"I'm giving you two, but listen to me;" he eyed her carefully, "these are _strong _tablets-" He stared steadily into her eyes, ensuring not to break contact. Hilde shifted uncomfortably before he continued, "One now, one in the morning." He glanced at the mounted clock and a cloud of panic fogged his intelligent eyes. "I've got to go," he said as he grabbed his coat from the counter, "I'll call Mr Maxwell in, to help you out."

Hilde fixed her eyes on the small, oval shaped white pills resting in her palm. '_Strong tablets,' _her foot was still throbbing with immense pain, reminding her of her injury, "… well … surely, it wouldn't make much difference if she took them both now, after all … her leg was pretty sore.'

After a few brief moments of wavering uncertainty, Hilde's hand rose to her mouth and tipping her head back, she tossed the tablets to the back of her throat and swallowed.

"Hilde, hey!" Duo sauntered into room, looking concerned. Hilde felt a blanket of pressure being lifted from her ankle.

'Whoa,' she thought, 'these really are strong tablets. Just a few more, and the pain would be virtually nonexistent.'

"You feeling okay? Anything I can do?"

Hilde smiled … _perfect_.

"Yes, actually," she smiled at the oblivious, dark-haired boy, "Could you get me a few painkillers from that cabinet over there?" Duo gazed at her, unsurely, with cobalt eyes that were tinted with curiosity.

"I don't know, I probably shouldn't-" Duo started, but Hilde soon cut him off.

"Please," she interrupted, "Just for the morning."

Sighing, Duo made his way over to the cabinet she was pointing towards, "This one?"

Hilde beamed, cheerfully, "That one."

-x- -x- -x-

The soft couch sunk underneath him and moulded comfortably to his body as Heero sighed in relief. Silence … peace and quiet. He was grateful for the fact that he had not yet ventured into the company of the riotous Duo Maxwell today. Sometimes, more often than not, his irksome friend was more than he could cope with and though, on occasion, he was reminded of the good times that he had spent with the boy over their years at the school, his mind was pushed to the point where homicidal thoughts were seeping into his brain.

Today would not have been an exception, for having to deal with six hundred infuriating junior students _and_ Maxwell, would require immense patience that Heero was positive that he didn't attain.

Which reminded him, apart from the fact that throughout his years at Harrison College, he had always attained immaculate grades in everything, why the hell had he been designated as Head Boy? He wasn't an exceptionally patient guy, and he was definitely not the most sociable, hell, he was barely anything that a model Head Boy was obliged to be and truthfully, the whole situation mystified him.

Everyone was almost certain that Mister Winner had one the majority votes for the place and to be honest, he was never interested in the position.

However, now that he had it … he supposed that it had its upsides, in particular, this segregated, spacious common room …

BANG! … BANG! BANG! THUMP, THUMP!

Heero rose from the chair, somewhat startled by the suddenness of the noises coming from the other side of the door.

THUD! THUD! THUD! … BANG!

Grimacing at the audacity of it all, Heero hastily made his way over to the door.

"What's wrong, did you forget your keys a-" He stopped speaking, holding the door partly open and staring at the visitor with a raised eyebrow. It wasn't, as he had thought, Relena, who previously having forgotten her keys during a midnight inspection round had opted for trying to break the door down instead.

"Heero, dude, how's it going?" The dusty brown haired boy, just a few inches taller than Heero grinned down at him before peering past his shoulder and into the common room.

He laughed, "Neat, so the rumours are true; you have been allocated a pad suitable for some intense, wild parties."

Heero stared at him, growing more wary of the boy as each second passed. Relena would murder him if she found out that he was thinking of throwing parties in here. In fact, being the prudish ass that she was, she'd probably report him to the principal, trying to get him expelled. Yeah, she'd love that.

"Just think …" the boy paused for a second, gazing dreamily over the room, "of all the half naked chicks we could have, wandering around this room …"

"Landon, piss off." Heero said, coolly, leaning against the doorframe in a way that ensured the taller boy couldn't possibly gain access.

"Bloody hell, mate, what's stuck up you're a-"

"Landon, I'm serious. I can't let you in here with those intentions on your mind." Heero stated firmly, unperturbed by Landon's sudden anger.

"Loosen up, Yuy, I'm not here to party … yet." Landon said, his tension easing from his shoulders. Being the second row player of the rugby team, he had a tall and broad frame, advantageous when he needed to win the ball from the lineout. "I've just got some news to share to you man … or should I say … 'captain.'"

Heero nodded impassively, that was almost already certified anyway. It was no surprise really, seeing as he had been captain of the team since they started playing in second year.

"You've got me, Chris and Mikey behind you all the way!" Landon said, slapping his hand against Heero's shoulder as he did so.

Chris, the fullback of the team, stepped into view from the corridor, his build solid, steady, and helpful for his position as the player responsible for the last line of defence in the game. "And that's why we're here … to celebrate!" He reached down into his sports bag, shoving a towel out of the way and emerging with a can of beer which he promptly tossed at Heero, who immediately moved to catch it. The can fell into Heero's hand, and he grasped the cool metal with ease before he was shoved aside and his team mates entered the room. Although there were only three of them, the room seemed suddenly much smaller than it had been before, as their eyes encompassed the whole area in awe.

"Amazing." Mikey breathed as he sunk into the place that Heero had previously been. The other two followed his example and in a few seconds, they had unpacked three six-packs of cold beer from their bags.

Heero stared at them, and although the disbelief didn't register on his stolid face, he was bewildered to how they had managed to smuggle the alcohol into the school.

Heero hauled himself onto one of the counters in the kitchen area, as he studied the boys who were snapping open the tabs on their cans and pouring the liquids down their throats like soda, with faint amusement.

"Don't tell me that living with that prude missy of a Head Girl; Relena, has morphed you into a killjoy." He had turned to staring at the green can of Heineken in front of him, but he was taken back as a feminine voice echoed through the room, causing his head to jolt up as dark Prussian blues clashed with glassy grey orbs.

The girl laughed and ran a thin hand through her sandy-blonde locks, "That would be a shame, because a spoilsport Heero is definitely no fun, in comparison to the guy I knew last year." She tossed her hair over her shoulder, as Heero coolly observed her. The girl was composed, undisturbed by his mannerisms, "Don't tell me you've forgotten the fun drunken nights you'd spent with little ol' me."

"I haven't forgotten, Sylvia," He answered smoothly, cracking a slight smile, the corners of his mouth quirking upwards, "How could I?"

"That's what I wanted to hear," Sylvia Noventa smiled warmly, occupying one side of the last empty couch before patting the vacant spot beside her.

Heero, catching the hint, slid of the counter and strolled over to the couch, languidly easing into the comforts of the cushions beneath him.

Sylvia watched him snap open the tab of the can before nodding to Landon, who appeared utterly enthralled by the rugby game on the flat screen television.

She thumped his shoulder lightly, "Hey! Pass me a beer." Irritated by the disturbance, Landon picked a beer from the floor and chucked it at her; she caught it quickly and after shuffling closer to Heero, she leant back against his shoulder and caressed his arm, "So, Yuy, did you miss me?"

Heero stared down at her, and for the first time in weeks, those irritating thoughts of the honey-blonde Head Girl drifted from his mind, to be instead occupied with the girl in front of him.

He shifted slightly on the chair so that her body fell backward onto his, before smirking down at her as his response.

* * *

**A/N** - Haha … and so, here enters Sylvia Noventa. 

I have to say, I didn't quite plan for this to be a super sized chapter … okay, so this chapter wasn't exactly _in_ my plan (yes, I have a plan, I just don't stick to it very well … they're more guidelines) but, humour me. It just popped up in the middle, completely unexpected, and so now I have to bump the rest of the chapters down one. That would be why this chapter is particularly one sided. I'm not leaving Relena out on purpose, I swear I'm not. It's just that her relationship with Heero wasn't quite as interesting as Hilde's and Duo's … until now that is. Tee hee.

Anyway, onto more important matters. I absolutely adore all of you guys! Thank you so much for sticking by me, even though my updates have been tremendously rare. You don't know how much I appreciate this. I'm not sure whether you've read my profile or not … but I've posted my reason there, but to recap – I've been going through quite a hard time lately, which I'm not going to bore you guys with, explaining it, but let's just say that it hindered me from writing. But that nasty spell is now starting to disappear, and with luck, I'll be back to regular updates in the next while. I just have to say a great BIG thankyou to all of you out there who are still reading and reviewing.

THANKYOU!

**P.S.** – Two warnings; before anybody mentions this, I thought I'd clarify. Considering the fact that this is an AU story, and there was no universal war against the peace treaty of the civilisations et cetera, Heero is slightly out of character from who he is in the series. Remember, he hasn't been through all of that rigorous training to drill his emotions out of his body and he hasn't been tainted by the horrors of war. Therefore, he has emotions, and he somewhat understands them, however, he still isn't a guy who clearly puts his feelings on display for all to see … he's still the reserved Heero that most of you know.

AND … ohmygasp … the gundam pilots … drinking … underage? Well, not quite, most of them are eighteen, which is the legal drinking age in the U.K, although, they're still not permitted in schools … and yes, Sylvia does seem like a bit of a wild child in comparison to the 'I'm too innocent to shoot a gun' girl we seen in the series. That's because I changed her persona to fit the story. I needed another obstacle for the girls, and this seemed perfect for Relena. A competitor (grins).

**Please review**, tell me anything … even if it's only one thing, I need to know you're there!


	11. Out of Mind

Author's Note: Dedicated to my reviewers, who pushed me to finish this chapter. Give yourselves a good ol' pat on the back. Sorry about the lateness …

**Chapter eleven: Out of Mind**

Grey clouds descended hastily upon the late afternoon, foreshadowing an evening of darkness; torrential rain and thunder, as Relena stood outside the dark oak door to her shared common room.

This was it. This was her turning point; if she was going to start to do something about this damned bet, it was going to be now. God, she could murder Hilde … if only that girl knew how much torment she was causing.

Her small hand wrapped around the cold metal of the handle and she tried her best to prepare herself for what she was going to have to deal with inside. Yes, she was actually going to act nicely around the monster that lurked inside the den ahead. She would prove to Dorothy that she really didn't need all of that superficial bullshit to win the guy over. After all, it wasn't as if she was expecting him to seriously date her or anything, it was only one flaming dance … surely it wouldn't be that hard to get close enough to convince him to go with her … right?

Shoving the door open, she quickly stepped inside. Her eyes widened immediately as they captured the view in front of her, and she blinked, unsure of whether she was dreaming or not. The door crashing closed behind her startled her from her thoughts, and suddenly she was being assailed with emotional reactions; confusion, irritation, anger, pain and something else that was bubbling deep inside, swelling like a huge bubble in her chest and threatening to explode. It was something that she hadn't quite experienced before, something unlike anything else that she _had_ experienced before and something that she was sure that she definitely didn't like. And it was aimed directly at the bold, blonde girl cuddled underneath Heero's protective arm.

"… Relena…." For the first time in the whole seven years that she had attended this school, Relena could truthfully admit that Heero Yuy had been caught off-guard. If she didn't feel so oddly angered, she may have found the sight somewhat amusing, but as she had it, she instead felt a stab of searing pain constricting her chest, so tightly that she was sure that she would soon choke.

Heero stared at her awkwardly, from beneath a veil of dark unruly hair that had somehow gathered across his forehead, in a disorderly fashion, his face displaying a stunned look of surprise and his strong hand firmly clasped around a can of beer.

Eventually finding her voice, Relena exclaimed, "What's going on?"

Heero swallowed, before smiling slowly, "Uhh…" from beside him, Sylvia Noventa tittered behind her hands, her eyes shimmering with a glowing sense of mischief. The other two guys that were occupying the other chairs in the room, stood gawkily from their places, ensuring that their gazes were averted from hers before mumbling some sort of apologies and hastily making their way out of the room. It slammed shut behind them with a resonating bang, which soon sent the room into a dominating, eerie silence.

"Heeeeey!" Sylvia yelled after them, "What about meee?" Relena had to suppress the strong urge to forcefully silence the young girl as her unclear words slurred together and her pitched voice resonated irritatingly in her ears.

"I …" Heero started, raising his hand as his glazed eyes hooked onto hers and his torso swayed ever so slightly, "can explain."

Relena sighed, leaning her weight onto one leg as she folded her arms stubbornly across her chest. "Try me."

"I didn't invite them over, they were just here to celebrate, and the drink …" he stared momentarily at the can in his hand before pulling his arm away from Sylvia's shoulders. "Well, I can't really explain that. Not that there's a lot to explain-"

"Heero!" Relena cried, "What do you mean there's not a lot to explain, you shouldn't-"

"What?" Heero bit back brusquely, causing the oblivious Sylvia to leap away from him in surprise. His eyes clouded over, the distant, glazed look that had been there before was quickly replaced with a dark, blazing sharpness that astounded Relena.

"You're Head Boy! What do you mean there's not much to explain?" her anger was overriding her sense of control, and Relena knew that she was losing grasp of the situation. Whatever happened to changing the way that she acted around him?

Heero pierced her with a heated glare, "Come on, Relena, it was just a bit of fun, stop being so uptight! Hasn't anybody ever told you what a prude you are?" He scowled at her, his eyes narrowing as they glared icily, sending cold chills shooting through her body. She breathed in deeply, knowing that he would never act so openly if it hadn't been for the affect that the alcohol was having on him, which was, in a way, a good thing. At least for once, she wasn't clueless to what was going on inside his heavily guarded mind.

The repetition of Dorothy's earlier words, however, did not go unnoticed by Relena and she stepped back, somewhat stricken by the oscillation. Was this really how she came across to other people. As a prudish bitch? Biting her lip, she tried to ignore the words, shoving them to the back of her mind, "Stop avoiding the topic at matter, Heero."

"Well then, you stop being such a fucking goody-two-shoes! Shit, Relena, have you ever had any fun in your whole bloody life?" He stood up, agitated, his breaths becoming deep and unstable, "Hell, it wouldn't shock me if you hadn't!"

"Heer-"

"NO! You walk around here like you own the place, but you know what? You DON'T! It's about time, Relena, that you got off your damned high horse and realised that you're no better than the rest of us."

She took another step back, withholding the tears that were threatening to spill from her eyes and ruin her cool exterior. At least, she hoped that it was cool.

"Is that what you think of me?" she asked, in what was meant to be an adamant, demanding voice, but which instead came out as weak and frightened.

Heero's shoulders slumped forwards and it appeared as though all of his anger had suddenly evaporated as he slunk back into the sofa.

"Sylvia, I think you should leave." He said stoically after a few moments of silence.

"But-"

"Sylvia, please, just leave." He said quietly, interrupting her protestation. The sandy, blonde-haired girl stood from her position, sending a callous glare in Relena's direction before indignantly storming from the room.

A tensed silence settled over the last two remaining occupants of the room, shrouding them like a thick black smoke … smothering and intoxicating. Relena stared at Heero, watching as his back rose up and down, up and down, in correspondence to his heavy breathing pattern.

"Relena-"

"Dr Steiner wants to see us as soon as possible," She cut in, quickly, "in his office. I met him in the corridors on the way down here."

Heero released an apprehensive breath of air and lifted his head to meet her gaze. "I'm sorry."

Relena stared at him, impassively before shaking her head, "I don't want to hear it. We need to go. Are you okay to go up here in your state?"

"What do you mean my state? I had _three_ beers, I'd hardly call that a state."

"Fine, just make sure you don't get caught, Dr Steiner isn't stupid."

Heero slowly came to his feet, and Relena observed him warily.

"Give me five minutes," he said, not bothering to twist the statement into a question.

Relena nodded her head and watched her Head Boy disappear into his room. Unbelievable … she thought; that boy is so damned unbelievable.

-x- -x- -x-

"Your grades have dropped by a considerable amount Miss Catalonia, and I'm afraid that we're going to have to do something about it …"

Dorothy leant back in her chair, bored already. She gazed at her freshly painted fingernails as she plotted ways to help her friends. Not that they deserved it, of course, because every time that she went out of her way to give them some assistance, they blamed _her _for every little thing that went wrong._ She_ hadn't been the one to knock the school's tennis captain unconscious. Seriously, Hilde had some serious issues.

" … Miss Catalonia, have you been listening to anything that I've said?" Dorothy snapped her head up to stare at her maths teacher, Mrs Andrews.

"Mhm. Something about my continuous lack of attention during class, and that if I didn't start putting some effort into my work, you were going to have to speak to my parents." Dorothy rhymed off, unperturbed by the threats.

"Not only that, Dorothy," the teacher warned, "but you do realise that if you fail these exams, you are not going to be accepted into Cambridge, like you have planned to for the past seven years now."

Dorothy sighed, "No, Mrs Andrews, contrary to popular belief, it was _not_ my choice to apply for Cambridge, or Oxford, but my parents'. I, honestly, have no interest in attending those schools."

"Very well then, but just because you don't intend to go to any of those Universities, doesn't mean that I'm going to allow you to fall behind in your studies. I'm allocating you a tutor …" she fidgeted around in her notes for a few seconds before pulling out a printed sheet of paper and scanning her eyes hastily down it. "Ahh, I have just the person .He's top of the Advanced Mathematics Class and has impeccable grades, not only that, but he's a great student," her eyes suddenly hooked onto Dorothy, intense and serious, "Maybe he'll be able to teach you a few things."

Dorothy rolled her eyes in annoyance, "Fine, when and where do I meet him?"

"Tomorrow, after school in the study hall." She shuffled her notes before turning her attention back to the platinum blonde before her, slouched in the dark oak chair and gazing out of the window beside her. She sighed, hopelessly, "You may leave now, Miss Catalonia."

"Thank the heavens." Dorothy muttered, pushing herself out of the chair before leaving the oppressive office.

She fled down the corridor, anxious to get back to her room and find out what Hilde had been up to all day. It was really quite depressing that her two best friends, one being a complete and utter bookworm and the other a sports-obsessed-athlete, had much more interesting social lives than she did at the moment.

As she rounded a corner, her black, heeled school shoes slipped against the stone beneath her feet and she felt herself lose balance. She closed her eyes, awaiting a painful collision with the cold floor beneath her, but instead, she found herself ramming into something completely different. Her eyes snapped open quickly to be caught, unaware, by two stunning aquamarine orbs, that glittered with something akin to laughter.

"Whoa there," She felt strong hands grip her shoulders steadily, helping her regain her balance as the deep husky voice called out in surprise, "Are you okay?"

Dorothy felt a rush of embarrassment flood through her body as she took a step away from the boy. "I'm fine." She said, curtly, before mumbling a quiet 'thank you' afterwards.

The boy chuckled, and adjusted his bag on his shoulder. He had strong shoulders, Dorothy couldn't help but notice, before her eyes quickly skimmed up to his face and she gasped in acknowledgement. Quatre Winner … her head suddenly began to spin, and the immense pressure that had abruptly surfaced in her head caused her to feel as though she would topple over.

Quatre, having noticed her uneasiness, hastily grasped onto her arm, his brows furrowing with concern.

"You don't look okay." He stated, cautiously as he watched her waver slightly on the spot, his steady hand the only thing keeping her aloft.

"No, no, I'm fine," Dorothy answered, swatting his hand away, "Just a rush of blood to the head, you know." She glanced up at him again, unexpectedly captivated by the intensity that was held within his glassy eyes. They seemed to shimmer calmly as the light from the corridor reflected against them. He reached up and ruffled his light blonde hair with a strong hand, looking unsure.

"Well okay," he said slowly, "I hope to see you around soon, Dorothy." He flashed a polite smile before continuing down the corridor. Dorothy turned to watch him go, feeling incredulous.

-x- -x- -x-

It was dark outside by the time that they had left the medical room.

"Please, Hilde, would you just stop-" Duo swatted the girl's hand away, irritated. Why had he given her that extra pill? He was so naïve to believe that she would keep it for the morning, for seconds after he had placed it in her hand, she had swallowed it dry.

"Hahahahahah …"

"HILDE! Please, stop- Dammit, that's it!" He grabbed her arm quickly, pulling her frail body into his, her back against his chest. He could feel her hysterical laughter vibrating through her body as he clasped her arms tightly to her side.

"Hahahahahah!"

He could smell the sweet scent of strawberries and cream from the silky strands of her hair, and had to fight hard to restrain himself from doing anything stupid. He moved his lips down to her ear, blowing lightly and smirking as the giggling girl grew still and rigid.

"Two can play at that game." He whispered gently, before slipping his hands away from her forearms and sliding them down to her waist.

Hilde swallowed, her head tipping slightly to the side as she gasped in surprise.

He suddenly spun her around to face him, hazy blue eyes clashing against his own, and he could suddenly tell just how far gone her mind was. She stared at him, silently, before giggling once again.

Well … at least she had stopped trying to tickle him. Now, he just had to get her to her room before anyone saw her.

Hold on … "Hilde?" he asked, steadying her and trying to catch her gaze, get her to focus, "Who do you share a room with?"

Hilde looked at him blankly, before blinking, "Why?" She asked, almost defensively.

Frowning, Duo answered her, "Because, I just need to know."

"Lani Reeves, do you know her? She's really, really, really, really …"

"That's okay, that's all I needed to know," Duo cut in. He wouldn't be able to take her to her room now, Lani Reeves couldn't keep a secret if the fate of the world rested on her shoulders. He would just have to take her to his, and hope to God that Wufei wouldn't be around.

"Really, really annoying." Hilde finished.

"I'll take you to my room then, but you'll have to be quiet," Duo told her, taking her hand in his and starting to lead the way, "Because we can't let anyone see us."

If one of the teachers saw Hilde in this state … he'd be so dead. And probably suspended from the rugby team for at least a term. He shuddered at the thought.

Hilde tugged at his hand, bringing him to a stop, "Nooooo …" she moaned.

Sighing, Duo turned around to face her, as she slumped onto the ground, pulling her hand from his. "What's wrong now?"

She pouted, "I can't go to _your _room. That's against the rules, silly!"

Ignoring how irresistible she looked when she pouted, Duo retorted, "And since when does Hilde Schbeiker follow the rules?"

Hilde stared, knowing she had been offended, "Excuse me, I follow the rules. I just … bend them slightly at times."

"Well then, little lady, you can bend them for me now, because it's either you come to my room, or we're both expelled from the school; one for overdosing and the other for stealing supplies. Comprende?"

Hilde nodded, her eyes half-lidded and looking tired, "Comprende," she repeated, before allowing Duo to pull her up and falling into his arms. "You know what?"

"What?" Duo asked, repressing a shudder; trying to restrain his emotions, restrain himself and the things that he was feeling, as her body pressed firmly into his.

"I don't …" she glanced up at him, with unseeing eyes, her head tilting back slightly, "feel so good." A soft noise emerged from her throat before her head dropped onto his shoulder.

Duo's heart was pummelling in his chest as he tilted her chin up, "Hilde?"

Her whole body had become flaccid in his arms, her head lolling on her neck. "Oh shit … Hilde? Wake up babe. Can you hear me?"

He shook her gently, before quickly picking her up, his arms cradled under her legs and neck, and taking off, he jogged as quickly and cautiously as he could in the direction of his room, mumbling all the way, "Stay with me, Hilde, stay with me."

-x- -x- -x-

Relena waited for him to open the door. She glared at his back, as he twisted the knob, hoping that the principle had called them to say there had been some terrible mistake, that Heero Yuy couldn't possibly be the year's Head Boy, because he was just so …

"Ladies first," Heero stepped aside as the mahogany door swung open.

… Bloody frustrating.

"Since when did you acquire manners?" She hissed at him, brushing through the doorway.

"Relena! Heero!" The principle greeted, cheery as always, "Please, take a seat."

They sat down, reluctantly, avoiding each other's gazes. Relena's arms folded across her chest as Heero's eyes lingered to the view from the large Victorian style window and it's elegant arches. The world outside had been dusted with a glittering frost, the shimmering pine trees in the distance spread out, covering a vast majority of the school's well tended grounds.

"I've got some great news." The Principle rubbed his hands together with glee and glanced towards Heero who had perked up in his armchair and was now studying the principle with a discerned curiosity, "We'll be holding the matches for rugby this year, and shall be the home playing team."

Heero smiled, genuinely pleased by the news, Relena watched him, a slow steady half-smile forming on her face as she watched his eyes glow. Maybe he wasn't quite the emotionless zombie she'd always thought.

"Are you serious?" Heero leant forward in his chair, his elbows resting on his long legs, "We're the homing team? That's brilliant! Who are we playing first?"

"Ravenhill Grammar," Dr Steiner informed, shuffling some papers on his desk aside, he glanced up through steel-rimmed frames, "They'll be arriving tomorrow evening, I'm sorry for the late notice, but it was rather sudden for me, also." He then glanced towards Relena, then back to Heero, now serious, "I will expect you two to do your best and ensure that our guests are as comfortable as possible … The team will be staying in the west wing dorms, on the second floor. And I will assume that you, as head girl and boy will be able to handle the situation perfectly fine?"

"Yes, sir," Relena replied, seeing Heero tense up beside her. Everyone in the school knew of the fierce competition between Ravenhill Grammar and Harrison College, she was clueless to how she was supposed to prevent fights from breaking out all over the school.

Dr Steiner nodded, approvingly, "Speaking of which, as Head Boy and Head Girl, you are both aware of your duties for the Christmas Dance, correct?"

Heero, snapping out of his daze, frowned, "What duties?"

"Well, of course, as well as ensuring that the hall is correctly prepared the night before, you two will be leading the first dance. It's an exemplary tradition that I thought the two of you would have been informed about."

Relena and Heero, both frozen in their seats, simply stared at their principle. Shocked.

Dr Steiner smiled, and if Relena didn't know any better, she would have described his grin as mischievous.

"So I'd advise that the two of you start practicing soon," he removed his glasses, folding them up and setting them on his polished, mahogany desk. "You wouldn't want to make fools of yourselves in front of the whole school now, would you?"

Relena and Heero still stared, mouths agape.

"Now that'll be all, if you don't mind, I have a staff meeting to call into order."

Relena was the first to stand. Silently, without saying a word to Heero, she excused herself and left the room, face pale, ashen. Heero rose from his chair, prepared to follow her example, when the principle called to him.

"Oh, and Mr Yuy?"

Heero paused at the door, slowly turning around to face his principle … the evil man who had just decided to present him with a death penalty. Dancing with Relena? In front of the _whole_ school? Was he mad?

"The main hall will be free from nine o'clock onwards," he winked, grinning suddenly, "Please don't stay up too long, we wouldn't want a loss of attention in your morning classes."

Heero felt his hand twitch, "Of course not, sir. Good afternoon."

-x- -x- -x-

Please don't be in, please don't be in, please, please, please …

Duo kicked open the door to his shared dorm room, Hilde's limp body dangling, cradled in his arms. He shuffled in, slamming the door shut with his foot, before resting Hilde on his bed and sighing in relief. Wufei wasn't here, thank God. He didn't know whether he'd be able to stick the infuriating, patronising comments that were constantly flowing from his roommate's mouth, at the moment,

He knelt down beside Hilde, running his fingers across her head. Her skin was slightly cold; he leant closer, trying to work out the rate of her breathing. It was fast, abnormally so.

Standing up and trying to keep calm, her paced around his room, wondering what to do. He could always go and find a teacher … his shoulder dropped; they'd both get into so much trouble.

But did that really matter if Hilde's life was on the line?

Definitely not.

He strode towards the door, his fingers gripping the handle, preparing a speech in his head, when suddenly; the door flew open, brashly striking him across the jaw and sending him stumbling, backwards, with a bewildered "oof!"

"Duo!" Quatre was at his side in seconds, platinum blonde hair shimmering in Duo's blurred vision, "Are you okay? I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to-" He hesitated for a second, then frowned, "What in heaven's name were you doing cowering behind a door, anyway? And-" He drifted off again, only this time for a completely different reason.

Duo, now sitting on the ground, nursing his slackened, aching jaw and grumbling to himself, looked up at him, wondering why he had stopped talking.

"Oh." Was all that he could say in reaction to Quatre's astounded expression.

"Oh, God." Quatre, shaking his head, moved towards the single bed crammed into one corner of the room, where the comatose Hilde lay. "What did you do?"

"Nothing!" Duo scrambled to his feet and ran over to the bed, tugging Quatre, who was now prodding at her body and pulling him towards the door, "Man, come on, leave her alone. The poor thing's tired, you're disturbing her nap."

"Duo! She's not napping!" Quatre ran his fingers down her wrist, then gliding his fingers across her eyelids, peered into her vacant eyes, which were rolled backward. He spun towards Duo, and Duo stepped back, away from his glaring eyes.

"I didn't do anything, I swear, man. She just … downed a couple of pills, no biggy, heh." He smiled nervously.

"Duo! This isn't funny-"

"I know. I know, man," He drew his hand down his face, anxiously; "I need your help, Quatre. I don't … I … You're studying to be a doctor, right? Can't you just … She's …" He walked slowly towards Hilde, gently brushing her hair off her forehead, tenderly.

Sighing, Quatre's shoulders dropped forward, his anger residing. "Okay, here's what we're going to do. I need you to go and find Trowa; he should be in our dorm room, studying for a biology exam. Tell him we need him here urgently." He turned to stare at Hilde, "She should really be taken to the medical rooms, but I don't think she's in any serious danger," he brushed his fingers across her head, "There's no fever. Did she fall at any stage? Hit her head against anything?"

Duo shook his head. No.

"That's good news. I think what she really needs is to rest, but we'll get Trowa to check her anyway. Now go, Duo, and hurry back."

-x- -x- -x-

_Oooh … Darkness._

" … Headache … relapse into a fever … sleep for …"

_Ouch. What the …?_

Her head was throbbing, continuously, not even a second of relief from the pulsating pain as it strengthened then weakened slightly, only to return full force a millionth of a second later. She felt like a human punch bag, merciless, at the hands of a very skilled fighter.

Unable to move any other muscle in her aching body, she pried one eye open. Or at least, tried to. Once her right eyelid had cracked slightly, a blinding light flooded through and she snapped it closed again.

_Oww, that was not good. _

" … Idiotic-"

She groaned, uneasily, the pain almost too much to bear.

"She's awakening."

"What!"

A sudden creak and she felt her body dip downwards as someone pressed their weight against her mattress. She wanted to push them off, tell them to bugger off and let her sleep. Oh, and shut the hell up! Why were they shouting so loudly? It was really uncalled for. Alas, how the evil world could be so unsympathetic to the sick.

"No, she's not. She hasn't moved an inch!"

"I'm telling you she's …"

"Yeah, yeah, you're always right, the almighty Trowa is never wrong …"

Wait … why where there people in her room, anyway? And that definitely wasn't Lani's high pitched squeak she was hearing, in fact, the voices sounded oddly, well, masculine.

"Ahh," she moaned, shifting slightly, the numbness in her body now starting to dissipate.

_Silence, at last! _

"Oh."

"Hah! See? Who-"

"Quiet!" A new voice emerged into the scene and, feeling extremely irritated, Hilde blinked her eyes quickly open. Faces spun above hers, blurred and undistinguished as a sudden dizziness whirred the room.

"Shut up, would you?" She mumbled, "I'm tryin' to slee…" Her eyelids, heavy as lead, drifted closed again.

"Hilde?" A hesitation, "It's me, Duo, how are you feeling?"

_Oh, just Dandy, thank you. My head's splitting, I'm exhausted, and all I want to do is sleep, but thanks to you and your raucous, I'm finding that rather difficult at the moment._

…_Duo?_

What on earth was _he_ doing in _her_ room? She bolted upwards before collapsing back down, her body strangely drained of energy. Why was she feeling so fuzzy?

"Whoa, relax," arms wrapped around her body as Hilde attempted to blink away her drowsiness. The room focused, her surroundings becoming less hazed. A dull thud in her head reminded her of her headache and she pressed her palm to her forehead.

"Oww … What's going on and why are you-" The TV and games console in the corner of the room caught her attention. Strange, she couldn't remember having that in her room before, or all of those clothes lying on the floor, or that bookshelf of encyclopaedias, or the … meditation book? "Where am I?" she asked, suddenly nervous. This was definitely the weirdest place she had ever woken up.

Duo suddenly grinned, "She's okay." He turned back to the two boys standing behind him, whom Hilde recognised to be Quatre Winner and Trowa Barton, and who were both currently watching her, warily, as if she were a bomb, ready to detonate any second. "You're in my room. Cool, isn't it? You know, should be very grateful. Millions of girls would kill to be able to wake up in my bed." Hilde feebly made an effort to swat his head with the back of her hand, but his movements were too rapid for her befuddled brain to keep up with.

Someone cleared their throat behind them and Duo turned to stare at Quatre, inquisitively.

"We should be leaving," The blonde boy tugged at his tall friend's blazer, before diverting his attention to Hilde, "I'm glad to see you're okay, Hilde/ If this idiot," he briefly shot a threatening glance towards Duo, "ever tries anything like that again, just kick him in the balls, hard."

Hilde's eyes widened, but once she noticed Quatre's amused smile, she laughed, hesitantly, the sound coming out as a choked breath.

"But seriously," Trowa said to Duo, "from now on, use whatever of your brain that's left in that thick skull of yours, before doing anything foolish."

"Hey, I wasn't the one that downed the pills!" Duo cried, indignantly.

Hilde waited until the other two had left the room before glaring at Duo. "What pills? What happened?"

Duo, moving around on the bed awkwardly, so that he was stretched out on the opposite end, grinned at Hilde, "Never mind, I'll explain in the morning. I'm tired, and I'm sure you are too, so …"

"No, Duo …. Please, just tell me! You can't leave me hanging like this!"

Duo, ignoring her whines, clapped his hands twice and suddenly, they were drowned in darkness, a black silken sheet draped across the room.

"A clap-on light?" Hilde questioned, snuggling into his quilt and ignoring the tingling sensations that jolted through her body when Duo's long legs accidentally grazed hers. "That's sad."

"You're just jealous."

"Pfft, yeah right." She allowed her eyes to drift closed and was just about to coast into a deeper sleep when the realisation of where she was, and what she was doing, hit her. She was _sleeping_ … In Duo Maxwell's infamous bed.

Just wait until Relena heard about this.

"Hey," she whispered, nudging Duo in the darkness with her foot. He grunted, sleepily. "Tell meeeee ..."

* * *

Thanks for reading, amazing person. Reviews highly appreciated ... (wink, wink, nudge, nudge!!) 


	12. Overkill

**Chapter twelve: Overkill**

The bed creaked under the pressure as she pushed herself up into a sitting position, nursing her poor head as she took in the creamy blue decor of the room. Nothing about the room really gave a direct reference to the owner. She couldn't point out a video game or book on a shelf and say, 'Yeah, that's definitely a belonging of Duo Maxwell.'

She stood up, the bed creaking again, and wobbled for a slight second before gaining her balance. Wincing, she glanced down at the sleeping boy at the other end of the mattress and smiled to herself. He was out like a light. She considered clapping loudly or shouting to see if either would affect his sleep, but decided against it. After all, if he was awake, she wouldn't have the opportunity to browse through his belongings like she was about to do now.

Grinning mischievously, Hilde crept over to the pine bookshelf at the side of the room. 'Mastering The Martial Arts' she read, 'Mechanisms And Engineering', 'Meditation: An Out Of Body Experience'. Her left eyebrow curved upwards at the last title, sceptically. Meditation? She'd have to enquire about that later. Continuing through the books, another few caught her eye, 'The Charming Man: A Guide To Winning It All' she laughed out loud at that one, hastily throwing a discreet glance at Duo – he was still asleep – then there was Emily Bronte's 'Wuthering Heights'. Her eyes lingered over the latter for a few seconds, taking in the dishevelled hard back cover of the book. She recognised it as being one of Relena's favourite novels. Classic literature? Hilde mused. She didn't pin him as the type.

Soon bored, she ventured over to the DVD titles. There were more martial art videos, mixed in with kickboxing, karate and fencing. Then there was the whole 'Friends' limited edition series (every season!), the complete Star Wars Trilogy, The Fast and The Furious, Lord of The Rings and then an odd one, sitting on top of the TV on space and aeronautical excursions.

Wow, she thought as she stepped away from his collection, he sure was a strange guy.

"What are you doing?" Duo suddenly groaned, startling her and causing her to drop the cover of Final Fantasy XII, some sort of video game – with, might she add, some hot pictures of characters on the back.

She whirled around, caught in the act. "Oh, hi," she greeted sheepishly, "just umm ... browsing." She giggled nervously.

Duo laughed, shaking his head at her. "That's a good game."

God, Hilde thought, he's so good looking. She studied his lean tanned body, sprawled out across his bed, his messy dishevelled hair, strands falling loose from his braid, and then her eyes followed his arm, which was dangling off the edge of the bed, his long fingers grazing the carpet.

"You can borrow it if you want ...?"

Her eyes snapped up again and she felt her face heating. Duo was grinning at her. "Huh?"

"The game," he motioned to the thing that she had dropped on his carpet and she quickly bent down to gather it up again.

"No, that's okay. I don't really play these things ... at all." She placed it back on a desk at the side if the room. "I should probably leave now." She couldn't meet his gaze.

"Okay," he yawned, stretching his body beneath his white sheets, "I'll see you later?"

Hilde smiled at him, "Yeah." _I hope so._

-x-x-x-

The bell rang twice, signalling the end of classes for the day, and Heero hastily thrust his books into his bag and began to make his way towards the door. Already, his fellow classmates were on their feet and manoeuvring around the room, ambling from person to person, picking up all the gossip and rumours they could scrounge and talking about their weekend plans. Then there was the overwhelming excitement and chatter that was buzzing around the classroom of the party on Saturday night.

He dodged past a large group of girls and dove into the bustling corridor, eager to escape to the sanctuary of his room before the gossip predators pounced on him, hungry for prey.

A firm hand caught around his upper arm, easily tugging him to a stop. Heero whirled around, glaring eyes ready to take down his opponent.

"And where do you think you're going?" Duo grinned at him with obvious amusement.

Heero shrugged his hand off and turned away, "To my room."

Duo reached out again and spun him back around, "No, you're not. As captain of our rugby team, you are going to gather the guys together and give us a heartening, encouraging pep talk before running over game strategies. To ensure that we have a half decent chance of winning the game tomorrow ... right?"

Heero's glare deepened, but he knew that Duo's right. "Am I the captain of this team, or are you?"

"Well, truthfully, I personally feel that I would be a lot more suitable-" Heero whacked him across the head, teasingly, "Ouch! Right, I get the point! You're the captain."

"Well, now that that's sorted, Duo, I want you to gather the guys together and tell them to meet in the changing rooms in an hour for a team talk."

Duo smirked, and mock saluted him, "Aye sir ... good plan!" And spinning on his heel, marched off in the opposite direction. Heero watched him go, shaking his heads as his friend merged with the animalistic crowds of students. But something wasn't quite right...

"Duo!" he yelled, causing people to turn and watch him curiously. Duo twisted his head towards him, peering over his shoulder with a half smile tugging at his lips.

"The male changing rooms."

Duo laughed, muttering a barely coherent, "Damn," above the raucous and continued on his way.

-x-x-x-

Stepping out of the glassy shower, she grabbed a towel and quickly wrapped it around her wet body, before wringing her hair out over the bath. The room was blurred with a haze of steam as she walked over to the mirror. Pressing her hand against the cool glass, she swiped her hand across its cover of condensation and gazed back at her reflection. She looked tired, something which was understandable, seeing as she had barely gotten any sleep since the stupid bet was placed. That, and the fact that the organisation of the Christmas ball was taking up most of her free time accounted for the dark rings beneath her eyes.

Still sore at him from last night, Relena hadn't said a word to Heero, not that he cared; Heero seemed content enough with the lack of conversation on her behalf and seemed to embrace the silence of the common room. Relena, however, found it rather awkward, but was reluctant to break it. After all, he had to know that what he had been doing was not excusable.

She sighed, remembering what her principle had graciously informed them last night. It was almost positively a homicidal task that he had set. Heero and her, dancing ... in front of the whole school, who would undoubtedly be watching their every single movement with steadfast eyes. Homicidal indeed, as they were sure to have murdered each other before the Christmas Ball had even begun, judging by their attitudes as of late. As if sharing the same common room and roles of head students with the obnoxious egotist wasn't enough, rehearsing a dance was just ... preposterous.

_Bang!_

Relena, startled from her daze, stared at her bathroom door in confusion. Heero had his own bathroom, so why on earth would he be...

_Thud! Thump!_

"Relena!" That wasn't Heero's voice. Clamping her fist firmly around her towel, she jumped towards the door, and opened it slowly.

"Dorothy!" she exclaimed, wondering what her blonde friend was doing hammering on her bathroom door. Her eyes darted beyond the girl to where Heero lounged in the background, watching the ordeal with mild amusement. She gripped her towel tighter, knowing that she would just die of embarrassment if the towel somehow managed to slip off. "Did you let her in?" she demanded, glaring at Heero.

He shrugged and stood, making his way over to their kitchen area, "Couldn't have her making a scene outside now, could we?"

Relena grimaced, knowing that making a scene was Dorothy's forte, so she couldn't hold that against him. Dorothy tugged at her arm, begging attention, "Relena!"

"What?" she snapped irritated.

"It's Hilde, you have to come, she's hysterical, she won't talk to us, and we can't find out what's wrong, so you have to come see her and ..."

Relena laid a hand on Dorothy's arm, trying to console her, "Okay, I'm coming now. Just calm yourself down, whilst I changed.

Dorothy collapsed into the nearest chair as Relena darted to her room, still clutching her towel tightly and ignoring Heero's stare. What was he doing anyway, lingering around their common room? Didn't he have some big game tomorrow that he should be practising for? She shrugged into a pair of jeans and pulled a brown v-neck sweater over her head before dashing from the room and dragging Dorothy towards the door.

"Where is she?"

"Our – My – Her room," Dorothy muttered.

"Do you know anything of what happened?" Relena pushed her outside as she shook her head of long hair. Just as she was closing the door behind them, Heero spoke to her.

"Oh, Relena?" Relena glanced at him from between the open crack of the door, "I'll see you half seven then, at the front hall?" He was smirking.

Relena glared at him before slamming the door. She had almost forgotten about the Ravenhill guests.

-x-x-x-

Heero gazed at his team mates, all crowded into the small _boys_ locker rooms and staring up at him with anxious yet apprehensive eyes. Many were sitting down on the wooden benches, slouched over, arms resting on their knees, legs tapping up and down nervously. The rest stood, leaning their backs against the tall metal lockers, some with their eyes fastened to the blotchy ceiling.

He didn't know what to say to appease their pre-match tension. He didn't know if he wanted to anyway ... securing their self-esteem too much could be ill-fated for the game, as they would commence with an overload of confidence and therefore not play as well as he knew that they could. Nevertheless, he still had to say something encouraging. It was times like this when Heero questioned the reasons for Coach appointing him captain of the team; after all, he never had been too smooth with words. In fact, he'd always been opposed to speaking unless it was absolutely necessary. You could call him anti-social in that respect.

"There'll be no practice this afternoon." He stated, watching the faces around him flood with a mixture of relief and confusion. "Instead, I want you all to chill out and relax, and try not to dwell on tomorrow's match." He paused, thinking for a second, Before pacing to the other side of the room, "Tactics will be as rehearsed yesterday, and can I assume you're all safe in knowing your positions and manoeuvres?"

The nodded and chimed their consents. Heero shook his head in approval.

"Well then. I've been a part of this team from the very beginning, so don't think that I'm not aware of what we're all capable of. I want to see Harrison win this year. I want you to show Ravenhill our best team efforts. I know we can win tomorrow; I'm confident of that fact, but I need you all to be wholly with me on this. Can we win tomorrow?"

A low mutter of yes's filled the room, Heero glowered. "Can we win tomorrow, Harrison?"

"YES!" The team cried.

"Good. I'm glad to hear it. Mercer," he turned to a tall, strong boy with dark toned skin in the far corner, "left-forward, I want to see you keeping free on the field. Don't let anyone stick to you. And don't be hesitant to tackle for the ball; you can overpower them. French, I want you strong on defence; don't leave your position unguarded." Matthew French, a smaller but well built member sitting on the closest bench nodded assuredly.

"And Theron, keep close to Mitchell, he'll need your assistance if tackled ... That's it boys. I want to win this game as much as you do, but without some decent rest, it'll be impossible. So forget late practices, and get a bloody good night's sleep. I'll talk to you all tomorrow." He dismissed the team with his hand, letting them know that they were free to go before heading towards Wufei, who was sitting solemnly on a back bench.

"We'll need to win tomorrow if we're to impress those chicks who are betting their damn sexy asses on us," Landon Mitchell said to group of guys surrounding him. Heero halted in his steps, his ears pricking at the words.

"Say what?" Duo asked, leaning into the conversation, obviously overhearing too.

Trowa who was leaning against a nearby locker pinned his sharp eyes on Landon, curiosity overcoming him.

Landon perked up, seemingly absorbing the sudden attention of the whole room into his already huge ego. "Didn't you know?" he asked no one in particular, "I heard a rumour that's going around that a couple of chicks on the school have been betting on us."

"What do you mean by us?" Trowa asked, clearly interested if he was willing to speak for once.

"Yeah," others added, going along with Trowa's question.

"Well apparently it was specifically two members of our rugby team. Nobody knows who though." Landon stated, happily glowing in the limelight.

Heero mused over what Landon was saying. Some things clicked into place as doubt and suspicion filled his mind. As his awareness piqued, he was suddenly curious about what he had just found out, and for the first time in his life, actually eager to find out the basis of a rumour. He scanned his eyes through the room, gaze landing on Trowa who was staring sceptically in the opposing direction. Heero followed his eyes to where Rain Striker hovered in the far corner, seemingly trying to fade into the darkness. His eyes were dark and his face paler was much paler than usual. A confused anxiety swept across his face, and Heero was so busy watching him that he didn't notice the rest of the team rise and filter through the door.

A nudge in his side brought him back to earth, he frowned at Trowa in question.

"There's something up with him." Trowa answered quietly, "He suddenly became uneasy as soon as Landon started speaking." His eyes flickered back to Striker fleetingly before he left the room. Striker followed soon after, not meeting anyone's eye.

Heero turned to Duo as they left the room, "What did you reckon of what Landon said, then?" He asked as he pulled out a key from his pocket and began locking up.

"Hmm?" Duo seemed disorientated, his mind elsewhere. He'd been approached by Aimee earlier who had been acting rather strangely, but he couldn't quite put his finger on what was different about her.

"About the bet." Heero elaborated.

"Oh, right," Duo laughed, scratching the back of his neck, "amusing as it sounds, I wouldn't trust a word that comes out of Landon's mouth. It's probably all bullshit."

"Hm, true."

Heero started off in the opposite direction of their dorm rooms, and perplexed, Duo shouted after him, "Hey! Where the hell are you going?"

Heero was unresponsive as he continued walking away, until he reached the top of the stairs that led to the main foyer. "To greet the bastards."

-x-x-x-

Okay, so maybe she was eligible for the _worst best friend of the year_ award, but honestly, there was really nothing that anyone could do to console Hilde, except to leave her alone. She was in such a high-strung state that any words that did happen to tumble from her mouth were an incoherent, mumbling mess. Nobody could understand what was going, and Relena guessed that she would just have to pry it from her later, even it meant resorting to more devious matters to do so.

God, she thought as she dashed down the corridors, imagine that head girl breaking the corridor rules that she was always trying so hard to enforce upon everyone else. Luckily enough it was a Friday evening and most students had taken to loitering around their own common rooms as opposed to dallying about the corridors.

But if a teacher caught her right now, it pained her to think what would be said of her in the staffroom. Even still, she was rejecting one head girl duty – the walk in an orderly fashion, corridor rule – to take on another. After all, she had to be there on time to welcome their new guests, right?

Relena shuddered as she thought of the scenarios that she would most undoubtedly have to deal with in the next few days. She just hoped to God that their school, especially the rugby team, would be on their best behaviour. Heero could deal with that though. As head boy and captain of the team he would be able to keep them under control … of course.

But then again … wasn't Heero supposed to be a discreet worshipper of mayhem? Him and that Duo Maxwell. She was positive that the many practical jokes and pranks that had tortured the school throughout their junior years had been rumoured to be at the hands of those two boys.

Which brought her to the question that she had been mulling over for the past few months: How had Heero Yuy managed to worm his way into the position of Head Boy?

Suddenly, a memory from last year's school rugby semi-finals haunted her mind. The games had been held on Ravenhill Grammar's grounds that year and she recalled hearing that a couple of boys from their school had snuck into Harrison's temporary dorm rooms and left blaring alarms to wake the boys up in the early hours of the morning. Not only that, but they'd apparently also filled each of the boys kit bags with silly string, which had meant that they were furiously scrubbing at their uniforms that morning in an attempt to rid their Navy and white jerseys of sticky fragments of pink goo.

As her feet pattered in resounding echoes against the cold stone, and Relena neared the main entrance, she realised that the team … their team, this year, would be hell-bent on getting their own revenge.

She slowed as she rounded the last corridor, the open main door coming into view and a blast of icy cold wind suddenly chilling her to the core. With discontent, she recognized that the other school had already arrived and were walking along the cobbled pathway in two neat rows towards the front doors. She quickly and quietly slipped into place beside Heero, who was rigid and unwavering in his stolid stance.

Relena stared at him in confusion and was about to poke him when Dr. Steiner stepped forward and greeted Ravenhill's coach with a heart handshake.

"Come on inside boys," Their principle smiled at the other team of sixteen boys, all attired in their school's yellow and red sports kit. "Our head students here will get you settled into your dorm rooms and then show you to the dining hall, where your meals have been prepared for you."

Relena studied the boys as they flooded through the doors, taking them in with only mild interest. What she was trying to work out, though, was which ones would be the trouble-makers.

One specific guy caught her attention. He stood tall and lean in his composed and confident stature as he glanced curiously around the front hall, seemingly taking in the old building's characteristics. There was something about him though, maybe the way he stood, or the way he brushed his fingers through his light blonde hair, or perhaps it was the way his dark brown eyes sparkled with amusement as they caught onto hers.

Relena turned away immediately, trying not to blush as the striking boy moved towards her, his movements slow and languid, almost liquid like.

"Well, well, well," he drawled, smiling what seemed to be a pleasant smile, but Relena could depict something different from beneath the mask. "Heero Yuy, head boy? I guess a congratulations is in order here. I must say, it really is a most heart-warming surprise." He nodded his head at Heero, who seemed unaffected completely by the taller boy's presence, before glancing furtively at Relena.

"Hello," he smiled disarmingly and extended his hand towards her, "Jason Shields, I'm the captain of Ravenhill rugby team. And you'd be …?"

Relena hesitantly took his hand, aware that Heero was suddenly pinning her with a glare, "Relena Darlian, it's nice to meet you."

"The pleasure's all mine." His eyes creased as his smile broadened, and Relena knew instantly that this guy was a charmer. He'd have the girls of the school fondling all over him by this evening.

He turned his attention back to Heero, his expression faltering somewhat – his smile fading, though not completely. "You're a lucky guy, Yuy, getting to work alongside a head girl as breathtakingly beautiful as this one …" he leant forward, whispering something into Heero's ear that caused his already set jaw to tighten and his Prussian blue orbs to glow with menacing anger.

Relena frowned, her mind racing. It took a lot to get Heero worked up; but it seemed like second nature to this guy.

"Okay, Relena, Heero?" Dr Steiner motioned for them to take the guests to their rooms, and Relena glanced hastily to Heero and then back to Jason before asserting, that indeed, this was going to be a mad, if not entertaining weekend.

-x- -x- -x-

The door creaked open and she stepped backwards, biting her lip anxiously, "Can I come in?"

He looked different; something was off about him. His hair was a dishevelled mess, his eyes unfocused; dark rings circling them. He shook his head, and the door began to close again.

What? "Please?" Hilde begged. The desperation must have been glowing in her reddened eyes, for he suddenly sighed and stepped back, away from the door, disappearing from sight.

Confused, Hilde pushed the door open slightly and slipped in. Dagger was already crawling back into his bed.

"Are you ill?" she asked, glad to discussing something … anything other than herself. Stepping closer to his bed, she was suddenly very wary of him.

His eyes fluttered closed as she sat down next to him.

"Are you?" He hadn't answered her question, but she didn't care to repeat herself. Something was wrong with him. But then again, something was wrong with her. And if he didn't want to talk about it, neither did she.

It was somewhat comforting just to sit in silence. She scuffed her foot against the ground. She supposed, though, that she did look rather ill, what with her blotchy face, puffy eyes and her poor demeanour.

"No." she replied after a while. His hand shot out from beneath his quilt, and he tugged at her, pulling her down with him and wrapping his arm around her. It felt good to be in the company of someone who hated Aimee Wright just as much as she did right now.

"_I don't know what you think you're playing at, Hilde, but it's sure as hell is going to stop right now." Aimee yanked at her hair, a scream fell from her lips as her head was tugged to the side. "You don't really think that Duo would pick an ugly bitch like you over me, do you? Wake up, Schbeiker! I'm so much better than you are, and I'm completely capable of making the rest of your stay at this bloody school, hell."_

Weariness washed over her body like a sudden flood, and she felt her eyelids drooping, suddenly heavy and sore.

"_Stay away from him!"_

"I want out of this – this mess." She whispered, leaning her head back against his chest.

She thought he was asleep, so she hadn't expected him to reply, but when he did, his breath was warm against her hair, "I wish that was possible." He tugged at her tighter, drawing her in, and Hilde remembered thinking, just before she fell asleep, that she yearned to stay in that place – nestled up against her oldest best friend - forever.

* * *

A/N - Okay, not the most adventurous of chapters - but the next one's action and fun packed. Lots and lots of drama. Yay. 

I. l.o.v.e. a.l.l. o.f. y.o.u.

Thank you so much for your ongoing support, your reviews and comments are much appreciated. I think there should be about (six) chapters left. And then I will have completed my first ever story! Ahah.


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